SECRETS  OF 
GERMAN  PROGRESS 


FRANK  KOESTER 


LIBRARY 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

SANTA  BARBARA 


PRESENTED  BY 

MRS. 
ERIC   SCHMIDT 


afyf* 


Markus  Tower  and  Roeder  Arch,  Rotenburg. 

A  picturesque  spot  in  one  of  the  numerous  picturesque  old 
German  cities  in  which  are  preserved  the  charm  and  art  of 
mediseA  ;il  city  planning. 


SECRETS  OF 
GERMAN    PROGRESS 


BY 

FRANK  KOESTER 

CONSULTING  ENGINEER 

Author  of  "Hydroelectric  Developments  and  Engineering," 
"Modern  City  Planning  and  Maintenance,"  "Electricity 
for  the  Farm  and  Home,"   "Steam-Electric  Power- 
Plants,"  "The  Price  of  Inefficiency,"  etc. 


Illustrated 


*|* 


NEW  YORK 

THE  FATHERLAND  CORPORATION 

PUBLISHERS 


Copyright,  1915 
By  THE  FATHERLAND  CORPORATION 


All  rights  reserved 


PREFACE 

When  the  storm  of  war  burst  upon  the  world 
with  the  terrible  vividness  of  a  stroke  of  lightning, 
overpowering,  sudden  and  disastrous,  but  few  in 
America,  indeed  but  few  in  Europe,  had  believed 
it  possible.  Lulled  by  the  propaganda  of  the 
pacificist  into  an  easy  belief  in  the  impossibility 
of  such  a  conflict,  the  everyday  world  saw  itself 
overtaken  by  the  incredible  spectacle  of  a  world 
war,  of  the  causes  of  which  it  was  almost  wholly 
in  ignorance,  of  which  indeed  it  still  remains  in 
ignorance,  wildly  ascribing  as  it  does,  various 
reasons  which  are  only  effects  and  discovering 
causes  which  are  only  symptoms,  the  favorite 
being  so  called  militarism. 

The  real  causes  of  the  conflict  are  much  deeper 
than  militarism,  as  are  the  causes  of  all  great  con- 
flicts, militarism  being  but  the  inescapable  ex- 
pedient to  be  adopted  in  the  last  desperate  mo- 
ment of  necessitv. 

It  is  not  the  present  purpose,  consequently,  to 
consider  the  military  aspect  of  Germany's  posi- 
tion, except  incidentally,  but  to  consider  rather 
the  relative  positions  of  Germany  and  her  com- 
petitors, commercially,  politically  and  indus- 
trially ;  to  ascertain  the  secrets  of  her  great  prog- 

iii 


iv  PREFACE 

ress  in  the  midst  of  active  rivals  and  to  indicate 
how  her  enterprise  and  efficiency  have  set  new 
standards  of  national  progress  and  a  gruelling 
pace  which  must  be  equalled  by  all  who  are  not 
to  fall  behind  in  the  race  of  national  existence. 

Between  the  old  and  the  new,  between  those 
who  hold  dominion  by  virtue  of  former  glories 
and  those  who  have  come  to  have  the  power  but 
from  whom  the  dominion  is  still  withheld,  must 
always  rage  an  irrepressible  conflict,  bursting 
from  time  to  time  into  war  and  violence  if  the  fair 
deserts  of  newly  risen  merit  are  denied.  Such 
is  the  true  nature  of  the  present  unexampled 
struggle. 

Neither  men  nor  nations  submit  to  injustice  in- 
definitely if  they  have  the  power  to  obtain  justice, 
but  the  readjustment  between  the  old  and  the 
new  so  often  accomplished  only  by  war,  has  never 
before  demanded  such  tremendous  sacrifices  as 
does  the  present  struggle,  a  struggle  essentially 
between  fortified  sloth  and  challenging  efficiency. 

But  if  German  commercial,  political  and  in- 
dustrial efficiency,  unsurpassable  and  threatening 
to  those  nations  contented  with  former  glories  has 
been  responsible  for  the  war,  if  they  saw  in  war 
a  means  of  destruction  of  the  efficiency  that  they 
could  not  equal,  Germany  certainly  should  not 
be  blamed.  Nor  should  she  or  does  she  complain 
that  they  have  sought  the  arbitrament  of  war,  for 


PREFACE  v 

if  she  is  not  as  efficient  in  that  vital  factor  as  her 
foes,  her  chain  of  progress  is  lacking  in  a  neces- 
sary link  and  she  must  fail  from  lack  of  military 
merit  alone,  whatever  her  other  excellencies,  for 
military  effectiveness  is  an  indispensable  factor 
in  the  preservation  of  national  identity  and 
existence. 

It  is  unlikely,  however,  that  she  will  fail, — 
Germans  consider  it  impossible, — and  it  is,  there- 
fore, of  the  greatest  importance  to  understand 
the  secrets  of  her  progress  and  efficiency,  espe- 
cially for  us  in  America  with  our  many  problems 
so  successfully  solved  by  Germany,  if  we  would 
know  what  the  war  means  and  what  it  may  mean 
to  us  and  how  it  may  profit  us,  indeed  how  it  must 
profit  us  if  we  are  not  eventually  to  succumb  to 
those  nations  that  do  profit  by  it. 

To  the  other  nations  of  the  world  Germany  is 
largely  an  enigma,  and  to  Americans  perhaps 
more  so  than  to  any  of  her  nearer  neighbors. 
Germany's  motives,  ambitions,  and  accomplish- 
ments remain  almost  an  unopened  book. 

But  she  is  an  enigma  not  from  choice  but  from 
indifference,  both  her  own  indifference  to  self- 
advertisement  and  the  disinclination  of  her  rivals 
to  inform  themselves  of  real  significance  of  her 
activities. 

In  a  generation  Germany  has  sprung  to  the 
front   rank  of   progress.     A  great  nation  has 


vi  PREFACE 

arisen,  unquestionably  the  greatest  nation  in  in- 
tensive development  and  driving  force  that  has 
ever  appeared. 

Unparalleled  achievements  of  incalculable 
benefit  to  the  whole  world  as  well  as  to  herself  she 
has  placed  to  her  credit  in  every  department  of 
human  activity,  and  her  destiny  will  be  to  con- 
tinue to  make  the  same  great  strides  of  progress 
irrespective  of  the  outcome  of  her  military  activi- 
ties which  are  but  a  phase  of  her  whole  develop- 
ment. 

Yet  even  Germans  themselves  do  not  well 
realize  the  causes  which  have  led  to  Germany's 
great  progress.  The  secrets  of  her  successes  are 
not  obvious.  It  needs  a  certain  degree  of 
patience  and  attention  to  discover  them,  but  once 
the  truth  is  seen,  it  will  be  realized  that  her  prog- 
ress is  of  the  most  substantial  and  enduring  sort, 
but  what  is  of  greater  importance  to  other  coun- 
tries is  that  they  must  adopt  the  same  principles 
and  the  same  strides  if  they  are  to  keep  their  place 
in  the  national  procession. 

In  the  race  for  national  leadership,  a  race 
which  never  ends,  a  race  which  is  indeed  necessary 
to  bring  out  the  best  in  the  nation  and  the  indi- 
vidual, the  thoroughly  organized,  honest  and 
vigorous  nation  is  bound  to  win,  while  the  dis- 
organized, dishonest  and  slothful  nation  must 
lose. 


PREFACE  vii 

Germany's  organization,  honesty  and  vigor  are 
freely  admitted.  In  every  field  she  has  scored 
triumphs,  in  commerce!,  in  industry,  in  technical, 
political  and  sociological  endeavors  she  is  con- 
cededly  at  the  front, — indeed  in  many  respects 
far  in  advance  of  other  nations. 

Yet  the  individual  Englishman,  Frenchman, 
Russian  or  American  will  not  admit  nor  does  the 
German  claim  an  individual  superiority. 

How,  then,  with  equivalent  materials  of  citi- 
zenship does  Germany  accomplish  so  much  more? 
Why  is  she  growing  more  rapidly,  becoming 
richer,  and  conferring  greater  benefits  upon  her 
citizens  than  are  other  countries  ? 

It  is  to  consider  these  questions  that  the  present 
volume  is  undertaken.  While  brief  in  extent,  it 
attempts  to  show  the  really  fundamental  reasons 
for  Germany's  wonderful  progress,  reasons  which 
when  properly  understood  will  not  only  explain 
Germany's  progress  but  will  demonstrate  the 
necessity  with  which  other  countries  are  con- 
fronted to  equal  her  achievements  if  they  are 
to  keep  abreast  of  the  times  and  not  become 
Spains  and  Hollands. 

The  actual  personal  value  to  every  citizen  of 
governmental  efficiency  such  as  Germany  has 
developed  is  so  great  that  self  interest  alone 
prompts  a  full  acquaintance  with  the  principles 
and  processes  by  which  she  accomplishes  so  much 


viii  PREFACE 

for  herself  and  her  citizens, — in  some  instances 
paying  dividends  to  voters  instead  of  imposing 
taxes, — by  which  she  puts  so  fully  into  effect  the 
national  slogan  of  "One  for  all  and  all  for  one," 
the  slogan  in  which  the  true  genius  of  the  Ger- 
man people  finds  so  complete  an  expression. 

Frank  Koestek. 

Hudson  Terminal  Building, 

New  York,  May,  1915. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I  Introduction 1 

II  The  Duty  of  the  State  to  the  Citizens      .      15 

III  Governmental  Control  of  Public  Utilities     27 

IV  The  Government  as  a  Business  Partner    .      40 

V  The  Greatest  Secret  of  German  Progress     52 

"VT  Responsibility  of  the  Press     ....      78 

VII  Non-Political  City  Administration     .       .      95 

VIII  Competition  and  Credit  in  Germany        .    106 

IX  Science  as  the  Overlord  of  the  World's 

Industry 118 

X  The  New  Science  of  German  Agriculture  128 

XI  Bismarck's  Great  Policy 141 

XII  The  Co-Operative  Spirit  in  Germany        .    153 

XIII  The  German  Woman  of  To-day  .      .      .163 

XIV  The  German  Educational  System        .      .    176 
XV  The  German  Army  as  a  National  Back- 
bone          188 

XVI     The  German  Navy 201 

XVII     Why  Germany's  Oversea  Commerce  Has 

Grown  so  Tremendously       ....    213 
XVIII     Germany's  Rapidly  Increasing  Economic 

Resources 227 

XIX     How  Germany  Has  Developed  City  Plan- 
ning         241 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTEB  PAGE 

XX     The  Housing  Problem  in  Germany     .       .  254 

XXI     Germany's  Pre-eminence  in  the  Arts  .       .  268 
XXII     The  World's  Debt  to  German  Technique  282 
XXIII     Mutual    Interest    of   Germany    and    the 

United  States 296 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Markus  Tower  and  Roeder  Arch,  Roten- 

burg Frontispiece 

PAGE 

Bismarck  Monument  before  the  Reichstag  Building  18 

Goethe  and  Schiller  Monument  at  Weimar  ...  18 

Voelkerschlacht  Monument  at  Leipzig    ....  56 

Cathedral  at  Cologne 56 

Municipal  Electric  Central  Station,  Berlin      .       .  96 

Workingmen's  Colony,  Altenhof 168 

Workingmen's  Apartment  Houses,  Nuremberg      .  168 

Harbor  of  Hamburg 216 

Tauentzein  Street,  Berlin 244 

Municipal  Opera  House,  Frankfort      ....  244 

Steamship  Vaterland 284 

Excursion  Airship  Hansa 284 


Secrets  of 
German  Progress 


CHAPTER  I 

INTRODUCTION 

WHATEVER  the  fortunes  of  war  hold 
in  store  for  Slav  or  Saxon,  Celt,  Teu- 
ton or  Gaul,  the  chief  interest  of 
Americans  in  the  present  war  will  but  tempo- 
rarily lie  in  the  strokes  of  tactics,  however  bril- 
liant, or  the  chessboard  moves  of  strategy  of  mil- 
itary boards  of  directors,  however  studied  or 
comprehensive. 

The  panoply  of  war  will  but  briefly  crowd  the 
stage,  and  when  the  spectacle  is  passed  again  we 
must  turn  with  whatever  lessons  we  may  have 
learned  to  the  every-day  business  of  life,  whoseso- 
ever shoulders  bear  the  burden  of  indemnitv  and 
whosesoever  pockets  are  lined  with  foreign  treas- 
ure. 

America  is  the  chief  spectator  of  this  world- 
wide show,  but  unfortunately,  an  unwilling  and 
heavily  mulcted  patron,  and  thus  one  entitled  to 
cry  "a  plague  on  both  your  houses."  Appre- 
ciating this,  efforts  have  not  been  spared  by  either 


2  SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

side  to  defend  its  entrance  into  the  quarrel,  so 
that  who  ever  runs  may  read  and  read  aplenty. 

But  America  has  not  much  to  profit  by  the  ex- 
act determination  of  whose  match  struck  the 
powder.  But  she  has  to  profit  and  vastly  to 
profit  by  coming  to  thoroughly  understand  how 
the  powder  was  accumulated,  and  the  infinite 
and  far  reaching  economical  processes  which  led 
up  to  the  great  explosion  and  the  sowing  of  the 
winds  of  international  competition  which  are 
now  being  reaped  in  the  whirlwinds  of  war. 

To  those  who  are  familiar  with  European  con- 
ditions, particularly  the  contrast  between  Eng- 
land and  Germany,  the  truth  is  in  reality  a  price- 
less book  of  knowledge  to  America. 

It  needs  only  a  homely  illustration  to  point  its 
value,  a  story  of  two  farmers;  for  America  and 
Germany  may  be  likened  to  neighboring  hus- 
bandmen, one  of  whom  holds  land  on  the  alluvian 
side  of  a  stream  where  his  crops  grow  in  rich  pro- 
fusion with  but  little  cultivation,  while  the  other 
dwells  upon  the  barren  side  with  but  a  narrow 
strip  of  infertile  soil  to  hand.  The  rich  farmer, 
with  his  ample  crops  in  his  more  frequent  mo- 
ments of  leisure,  may  observe  unconcerned,  if 
not  with  a  certain  impulse  of  charity,  his  neces- 
sarily more  industrious  neighbor  on  the  barren 
shore.  He  will  certainly  not  grudge  him  the  few 
drops  of  honey  which  his  poorly  situated  neigh- 


INTRODUCTION  3 

bor's  bees  carry  across  the  stream  and  he  may 
even  admire  the  intensive  detail  with  which  the 
meagre  soil  is  cultivated. 

But  when  after  a  few  decades  the  barren  shore 
blooms  like  a  garden  while  the  rich  alluvian  soil 
has  been  exhausted  by  the  reckless  drafts  upon  its 
fertility,  and  the  prodigal  farmer  begins  to  feel 
the  pinch  of  circumstances  and  lessening  yields, 
while  the  farmer  on  the  once  barren  shore  thrives 
on  with  the  comfort  and  luxury  that  once  were 
enjoyed  by  the  prodigal  farmer,  it  behooves  not 
the  latter  to  neglect  the  lessons  which  the  poor 
farmer  has  been  forced  to  leam,  but  rather  to 
avail  himself  of  the  hard-earned  technique  and  the 
multiplicity  of  devices  which  the  severe  but  kindly 
mother  of  inventions,  necessity,  has  forced  upon 
him. 

This  comparison  is  by  no  means  fanciful. 
Germany,  with  an  area  fourth-fifths  of  the  size  of 
Texas,  supports  a  population  of  67,000,000 
which,  without  immigration,  is  increasing  at  the 
rate  of  one  million  a  year,  while  the  vastly  richer 
and  wider  expanses  of  America  support  a  popula- 
tion of  100,000,000  with  a  wealth  per  capita  only 
slightly  if  any  in  excess  of  Germany's  wealth  per 
capita. 

In  1870  Germany  with  a  population  of  40,000,- 
000  was  poor  in  natural  resources  and  poor  in 
pocket.     To-day,  with  a  population  67  per  cent. 


4    SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

greater,  she  is  still  poorer  in  natural  resources, 
but  her  savings  bank  deposits  have  increased  600 
per  cent.,  and  the  individual  wage  earners'  income 
and  wages  have  more  than  doubled. 

Her  foreign  trade  has  increased  from  one  to 
five  billion  dollars,  while  in  the  same  period  the 
foreign  trade  of  Great  Britain,  for  example,  only 
increased  from  two  to  five  and  a  half  billion  dol- 
lars. Thus,  while  England  has  been  doubling 
her  trade,  Germany  has  increased  hers  fivefold. 

Comparison  might  be  multiplied  but  these  few 
items  are  typical  of  the  enormous  development  of 
Germany.  It  is  the  present  purpose  to  point  out 
the  secrets  of  this  vast  German  progress  and  to 
show  in  what  j)articulars  America  may  profit  by 
the  hard  experience  which  Germany  has  gained. 

America,  enjoying  the  isolation  of  its  geo- 
graphical situation  and  free  from  the  pressure  of 
foreign  political  considerations,  has  been  ani- 
mated in  its  development  by  individual  rather 
than  national  considerations.  The  country  has 
grown  up  of  its  own  accord.  That  it  should  be- 
come great  and  powerful  has  not  been  an  active 
conscious  national  policy. 

Its  politicians  have  been  engaged  in  their  own 
devices  and  have  found  favor  not  in  developing 
the  country  as  a  nation  but  in  favoring  certain 
factions  succeeding  each  other  in  power  from 
time  to  time. 


INTRODUCTION  5 

America  thus  has  not  been  subjected  to  two 
great  driving  forces  which  have  been  at  work  in 
building  up  Germany,  that  is  bureaucracy  and 
the  necessary  policy  of  national  development  for 
the  sake  of  the  nation  rather  than  of  the  indi- 
vidual. 

Germany  has  had  to  become  effective  as  a  great 
national  mechanism  in  order  to  maintain  her  na- 
tional individuality  gained  after  long  years  of  ef- 
fort. National  existence  among  close,  hostile 
and  powerful  neighbors  depends  on  power  as  a 
nation.  The  individual  must  always  place  the 
state  before  himself.  He  must  be  sacrificed 
wherever  necessary,  both  in  peace  and  war  to  the 
national  idea.  Anything  less  involves  the  extinc- 
tion of  the  state  as  a  state. 

Under  similar  conditions  Americans  would 
similarly  be  ready  to  sacrifice  themselves.  Since 
the  necessity  does  not  exist,  this  phase  of  national 
character  is  quiescent  in  Americans,  who  are 
ready  enough  to  sacrifice  themselves  in  time  of 
war  but  who  in  times  of  peace  fail  numerously 
even  to  go  to  the  polls. 

Not  understanding  the  conditions,  Americans 
subject  Germans  to  criticism  for  permitting 
themselves  to  be  led  by  a  "War  Lord"  (literally, 
but  in  reality  "commander-in-chief"),  for  the 
most  part  not  realizing  that  there  is  more  real 
personal  liberty  in  Germany  than  in  the  United 


6    SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

States,  and  further  not  understanding  that  where 
a  German  sacrifices  his  personal  liberty,  he  does 
so  in  the  interest  of  Germany  as  a  nation,  draw- 
ing from  the  augmented  national  effectiveness  a 
spiritual  strength  which  more  than  reimburses 
him  and  contributes  much  to  the  meaning  of  the 
much  misunderstood  term,  German  "Kultur"; 
which  does  not  mean  "culture"  in  the  English 
sense,  but  rather,  "ideals  of  German  civilization." 

The  driving  force  of  foreign  political  pressure 
is  almost  absent  in  the  United  States.  It  is  not 
necessary  for  an  American  to  feel  that  he  must 
constantly  exercise  his  personal  efforts  in  behalf 
of  his  country.  It  is  big  and  strong  enough  to 
take  care  of  itself  without  any  particular  assist- 
ance from  him,  and  in  the  case  of  many  poli- 
ticians and  men  of  business  importance,  America 
is  a  picnic  to  be  enjoyed  rather  than  a  civilization- 
ideal  to  be  served  and  to  which  sacrifices  must  be 
made. 

It  is  not  a  material  part  of  American  policy  to 
aggrandize  the  states  and  but  few  energies  are  di- 
rected to  that  objective.  Not  only  that,  but  a 
not  inconsiderable  minority  are  in  favor  of  a 
policy  of  disaggrandizement,  while  the  relinquish- 
ment of  territorial  possessions  is  an  avowed  polit- 
ical purpose  of  the  party  at  present  in  power. 

A  nation  under  pressure  from  within,  as  Ger- 
many is  by  reason  of  its  rapidly  increasing  popu- 


INTRODUCTION  7 

lation,  and  from  without  by  reason  of  the  ambi- 
tions of  its  neighbors  must  necessarily  be  actuated 
by  motives  which,  while  readily  understood  by 
Americans,  cannot  easily  be  appreciated  at  their 
true  value. 

A  policy  of  disaggrandizement  can  only  be  pos- 
sible in  a  country  like  America  where  the  natural 
resources  still  afford  ample  leeway  for  the  growth 
of  the  population.  Were  the  whole  population 
crowded  into  Texas  with  Japan  across  the  Rio 
Grande  instead  of  the  Pacific,  something  of  the 
German  tension  would  be  understood. 

Talk  of  giving  the  Filipinos  their  independ- 
ence under  such  a  condition  and  the  abandon- 
ment of  such  a  large  and  fertile  portion  of  the 
earth's  surface  to  half-civilized  bands  of  savages 
would  appear  grotesque. 

As  an  aggrandizement  of  the  state  is  not  an 
active  part  of  the  policy  of  the  United  States,  it 
cannot  be  said  to  have  any  propulsive  national 
policy.  It  maintains  rather  the  attitude  of  a 
guardian  of  liberty  hardly  earned  and  its  policy 
is  that  of  live  and  let  live.  Having  suffered  op- 
pression in  the  past,  the  national  conscience  hesi- 
tates to  inflict  upon  others  the  oppression  which 
it  has  escaped. 

The  powerful  phrases  of  the  framers  of  its  gov- 
ernment and  of  Lincoln,  the  preserver  of  its 
unity,  like  ghostly  sentinels,  block  the  path  of  im- 


8    SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

perialistic  ambitions,  which  nevertheless  it  must 
some  day  entertain,  for  that  is  a  stage  of  national 
development  which  every  great  country  must  in 
the  nature  of  things  experience. 

Germany  is  now  accused  of  such  ambitions,  and 
much  of  the  criticism  in  the  United  States  of 
Germany,  doubtless  arises  from  the  feeling  that 
America  having  abstained  from  such  ambitions, 
cannot  be  called  upon  to  sympathize  with  a  na- 
tion that  has  not  so  abstained. 

Whether  Germany  now  does  or  does  not  en- 
tertain imperialistic  ambitions  is  beyond  deter- 
mination. Germany  herself  does  not  know  and 
cannot  know  as  no  country  can  know  when  it  is 
passing  through  such  a  stage  of  its  development. 

But  even  if  it  be  so,  it  is  not  a  thing  to  be 
ashamed  of  or  to  be  denied.  England  exercises 
beyond  doubt  an  imperialism  of  the  sea,  while 
Russia,  it  may  freely  be  asserted,  cherishes  im- 
perialistic ambitions  of  a  slow  but  certain  glacier- 
like progress.  France  has  perhaps  passed 
through  that  stage  of  its  progress  while  the 
imperialism  of  Spain  is  a  thing  of  history. 

The  sudden  and  intense  development  of  Ger- 
many so  long  oppressed,  may  have  projected  her 
into  this  stage  of  her  existence  simultaneously 
with  the  necessity  of  self-preservation,  and  if 
there  be  any  guilt  for  the  present  war  and  its  long 
preparations  to  be  laid  at  her  door,  it  would  have 


INTRODUCTION  9 

to  be  charged  to  that  portion  of  her  ambition 
which  may  be  ascribed  to  imperialism  and  not  to 
the  ambition  of  self-preservation. 

America,  having  no  necessity  for  precautions  of 
a  self-preservatory  nature,  and  being  as  yet  un- 
aroused  by  imperialistic  ambitions  has  failed  to 
appreciate  the  situation  in  which  Germany  finds 
herself  and  has  shown  a  certain  hostility  and  dis- 
trust of  German  motives  which  Germans  know  is 
unfounded,  but  which  in  the  midst  of  an  active 
propaganda  of  her  enemies,  she  has  had  but  small 
opportunity  to  allay. 

The  best  corrective,  however,  of  misapprehen- 
sion and  prejudice  is  not  controversy,  claims  and 
counter  claims,  but  simple  knowledge  of  condi- 
tions. Were  German  conditions  and  progress 
and  the  secrets  of  her  progress  as  well  understood 
by  Americans  as  by  Germans  an  altogether  dif- 
ferent view  would  obtain  and  appreciation  would 
take  the  place  of  prejudice  and  co-operation  suc- 
ceed a  cold  neutrality. 

The  United  States  needs  well  to  consider  her 
world-position  and  who  her  friends  may  be,  for 
the  enormous  development  of  modern  machinery 
of  transportation  and  warfare  has  reduced  her 
isolation  materially.  Let  us  suppose  Germany 
rendered  impotent  and  Russia  satisfied  with  her 
spoils,  what  guarantee  has  the  United  States 
against  a  combined  attack  of  the  Anglo-Japanese 


10   SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

alliance  on  both  shores  with  the  consequent  de- 
struction of  our  fleet,  the  capture  of  our  seaboard 
cities,  and  the  landing  of  the  huge  trained  armies 
of  Japan  and  England  in  Canada  for  expedi- 
tions against  our  principal  inland  centers? 

Against  such  a  coalition  the  United  States 
would  be  a  fat  nut  in  the  jaws  of  a  steel  vise,  and 
there  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  willingness,  not  to 
say  eagerness,  of  Japan  for  such  an  enterprise. 

The  dominant  force  in  the  British  government 
is  the  capitalistic  class.  Britain  is  in  reality  a 
plutocracy  as  compared  with  the  bureaucracy  of 
Germany,  the  autocracy  of  Japan  and  Russia  and 
the  republicanism  of  France  and  the  United 
States.  What  guarantee  has  the  United  States 
against  British  greed  once  it  finds  the  power  in  its 
hands  to  proceed  against  us  as  it  has  against  Ger- 
many, particularly  if  it  is  able  to  use  Japan  and 
its  potential  millions  of  Hindoo  troops  to  pull  its 
chestnuts  out  of  the  fire? 

While  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that  in  time  the 
United  States  would  retaliate  as  Russia  will  some 
day  retaliate  against  Japan,  it  would  mean  a  long 
period  of  humiliation  and  preparation  for  re- 
venge and  countless  expenditures  of  blood  and 
treasure. 

Against  such  a  contingency  a  vastly  more  ef- 
fectual remedy  would  be  a  German- American  en- 
tente. 


INTRODUCTION  11 

It  is  not  my  purpose,  however,  to  go  into  a  con- 
sideration of  the  international  political  situation 
of  the  United  States.  I  merely  indicate  this  as 
one  of  the  possibilities  of  the  future  to  show  that 
the  United  States  has  much  more  to  fear  from  the 
enemies  of  Germany  than  from  German  ambi- 
tions whatever  they  may  be,  and  to  show  that  a  re- 
view of  the  secrets  of  success  of  Germany's  prog- 
ress deserves  open-minded  and  careful  considera- 
tion, for  from  Germany  America  may  draw  most 
valuable  lessons  if  she  cares  to  learn. 

The  prejudice  against  Germany  has  been 
largely  caused  by  the  so-called  imperialistic  am- 
bitions credited  to  Germany  by  the  pro-British 
propaganda  based  upon  the  occasional  jingo  out- 
burst of  individual  Germans,  for  jingoes  exist  in 
Germany  no  less  than  in  America. 

Imperialism  means  in  its  fullest  extent  world 
domination.  The  noisy  pro-British  propaganda 
credits  Germany  with  the  ambition  of  ruling  the 
world.  The  67,000,000  Germans  are  to  be  the 
masters  of  39,000,000  French,  67,000,000  Japs, 
46,000,000  British  and  her  390,000,000  colonial 
and  imperial  subjects,  166,000,000  Russians,  100,- 
000,000  Americans  and  any  other  odd  hundreds  of 
millions  around  loose  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 
Merely  to  state  such  a  proposition  is  to  show  its 
absurdity.  Germany  should  at  least  be  credited 
with  some  degree  of  sanity.     The  limits  of  her 


12   SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

imperial  ambition,  if  her  ambition  be  so  termed,  is 
most  fittingly  expressed  in  the  phrase  of  the  Im- 
perial Chancellor,  Honorable  Bethmann-Holl- 
weg,  "a  place  in  the  sun."  Only  the  most  violent 
of  Germany's  foes  would  credit  her  with  the  im- 
possible ambition  of  desiring  to  seize  all  the 
places  in  the  sun. 

The  extent  of  Germany's  ambitions  is,  and 
properly  is,  an  outlet  for  her  products,  a  secure 
source  of  food  and  raw  materials  and  the  indis- 
putable acknowledgment  of  her  position  as  a 
world  power.  That  is  to  say,  sure  breathing 
room,  nothing  more.  The  justice  of  these  ambi- 
tions cannot  be  denied  by  any  impartial  observer. 

No  American  but  regards  his  country  as  an  un- 
conquerable world  power,  and  perhaps  no  Ameri- 
can but  regards  Germany  in  the  same  light,  yet 
Germany  has  not  as  yet  indisputably  demon- 
strated it.  To  recur  to  the  illustration  already 
noted,  if  all  Americans  were  crowded  into  Texas 
with  not  only  Japan,  but  a  Japan  more  than 
twice  as  populous  alongside  and  imbued  with  the 
ambition  of  dismembering  her  and  of  seizing 
large  slices  of  an  already  restricted  territory,  the 
passionate  necessity  of  demonstrating  to  herself, 
to  her  foes  and  to  the  world  her  unconquerable 
position  would  be  manifest. 

That  is  Germany's  position  to-day,  with  not 
only  a  Russia  alongside,  but  with  two  not  less 


INTRODUCTION  13 

formidable  antagonists  on  the  other  side,  and  with 
Japan  in  the  far  east. 

In  such  a  situation  the  accusation  of  imperial- 
ism is  utterly  grotesque  and  the  holding  up  of 
Germany  as  a  bug-a-boo  by  England  to  preju- 
dice America  are  seen  to  be  ridiculous. 

It  must  be  obvious,  therefore,  that  America 
cannot  justly  entertain  any  prejudice  against 
Germany  and  that  instead  of  regarding  her  with 
distrust  and  suspicion,  most  valuable  lessons  are 
to  be  learned  from  Germany  which  will  enable 
America  to  profit  vastly  in  a  material  sense  by 
the  utilization  of  her  great  natural  resources,  in 
the  manner  which  Germany  has  found  so  profit- 
able with  her  meagre  field  while  enabling  America 
to  prepare  herself  against  the  day  of  aggression 
which  her  relatively  unprotected  affluence  invites. 

This  brief  outline  of  the  political  position  of 
Germany  shows  the  mighty  external  and  internal 
material  incentives  which  have  acted  upon  her. 
In  the  long  preceding  generations,  Germany  was 
divided  and  powerless.  Without  the  unifying 
force  of  a  national  entity,  her  expression  was 
largely  confined  to  the  occasional  efforts  of  spo- 
radic genius,  as  is  the  case  with  all  small  coun- 
tries. With  unity  came  national  aspirations,  and 
national  accomplishment  until  to-day  Germany, 
the  youngest  of  the  great  nations,  has  aroused 
such  jealousy  as  to  become  the  victim  of  the  most 
extensive  military  coalition  ever  formed. 


14   SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

Under  the  impetus  of  unity  and  with  the  in- 
centives and  necessities  to  which  she  has  been  sub- 
jected, Germany  has  accomplished  remarkable 
things. 

It  cannot,  therefore,  fail  to  be  of  the  greatest 
interest  and  value  to  Americans  to  give  their  at- 
tention to  the  expedients  and  secrets  of  German 
progress,  to  see  how  Germany  has  met  certain 
problems  which,  as  will  be  pointed  out  subse- 
quently, will  sooner  or  later  confront  America, 
and  be  prepared  to  adopt  such  of  her  expedients 
as  will  be  most  useful  here;  for  the  technique  of 
science,  of  politics  and  of  economics  which  has 
brought  Germany  to  the  front  in  forty  years, 
must  certainly  contain  suggestions  of  value  to 
America  as  her  own  destiny  leads  into  more  con- 
stricted ways,  while  a  knowledge  of  German  con- 
ditions and  methods  will  allay  the  baseless  preju- 
dice which  has  arisen  and  will  increase  the  friend- 
ship of  the  two  countries,  a  consummation  of  un- 
doubted and  inestimable  mutual  benefit. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   DUTY   OF    THE   STATE   TO   THE    CITIZEN 

THE  roots  of  national  greatness  lie  deep 
in  the  character  of  the  individual  citi- 
zens of  a  state,  and  the  oak  of  its  prog- 
ress is  the  measure  of  their  sturdiness  and  vigor. 

No  great  nation  has  ever  appeared  whose  indi- 
vidual citizens  were  supine  and  characteristically 
self-interested,  but  wherever  the  material  of  good 
citizenship  has  gathered  itself  sufficiently  to- 
gether a  great  state  has  resulted. 

A  certain  physical  magnitude,  however,  is 
necessary  to  a  state  if  it  is  to  reach  the  highest 
national  development,  for  small  states,  though 
there  are  those  that  show  the  great  qualities  of 
the  great  states,  must  necessarily  fail  to  inspire 
their  citizens  with  the  powerful  morale  which  the 
citizen  of  a  great  state  experiences  through  the 
enormous  power  of  the  nation  of  which  he  is  a 
part. 

The  very  magnitude  of  a  state  thus  gives  it  a 
vast  added  power  far  in  excess  of  the  power  of  a 
number  of  small  states  of  an  equal  aggregate  size. 

This  is  exemplified  in  the  history  of  what  is 

15 


16   SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

now  the  German  Empire.  Scarcely  more  than  a 
century  ago  there  were  three  hundred  separate 
governments,  including  kingdoms,  grand  duchies, 
duchies,  principalities,  free  cities  and  the  like. 
There  were  over  1,500  tariffs  in  existence  between 
these  states  and  they  were  of  such  insignificant 
power  that  the  national  spirit  was  largely  dor- 
mant. 

Napoleon  overran  them  and  consolidated  them 
to  38,  thus  beginning  the  process  which  Bismarck 
finished  hardly  more  than  a  half  century  later 
with  the  consolidation  into  the  German  Empire 
of  the  26  units  of  which  it  is  now  composed. 

The  enormous  power  which  has  been  the  out- 
growth of  Bismarck's  work  is  undoubtedly  the 
greatest  exemplification  that  there  has  ever  been 
of  the  value  of  unity,  the  union  of  the  states  of 
the  United  States  not  even  excepted,  as  they  were 
never  in  reality  disunited  to  the  extent  of  making 
war  on  each  other  as  were  the  German  states,  and 
the  numbers  suddenly  brought  into  a  state  of  uni- 
fication were  very  much  smaller. 

When  German  unity  was  accomplished  and  the 
Germans  came  to  regard  themselves  as  Germans 
rather  than  as  Bavarians,  Hessians,  Prussians, 
Wiirttembergers,  or  Saxons,  as  the  case  might  be, 
the  psychological  elements  of  a  new  national  force 
came  into  existence  and  the  morale  of  magnitude 
inspired  the  citizens  of  the  new  nation  with  a  na- 


DUTY  OF  STATE  TO  THE  CITIZEN       17 

tional  spirit  of  almost  unexampled  ardency  and 
patriotism. 

Today  three  thousand  Germans  will  charge  the 
enemy's  trenches  and  fifty  will  survive.  Hu- 
manity is  capable  of  nothing  more.  To  what 
ideal  do  they  sacrifice  themselves?  Nothing  else 
than  that  of  German  unity,  to  the  preservation  of 
a  national  entity  that  has  only  come  into  existence 
within  the  memory  of  living  men,  but  which  in- 
spires an  enthusiasm  and  devotion  which  has 
never  been  surpassed  in  history. 

The  extraordinary  progress  which  Germany 
has  made  within  the  short  span  of  its  unified  ex- 
istence is  the  expression  in  other  fields  of  the  same 
devotion  which  the  German  shows  for  German 
ideals  on  the  battlefields. 

It  may  with  truth  be  claimed  that  any  patriotic 
people  will  sacrifice  themselves  for  their  country 
on  the  battlefield  with  equal  valor,  and  reasoning 
from  this  fact,  it  is  easy  to  fall  into  the  error  of  as- 
suming that  in  peace  their  relations  to  their  coun- 
try will  be  marked  with  the  same  degree  of  devo- 
tion. 

Such,  however,  is  not  the  case.  There  are  not 
lacking  even  instances  in  some  countries  of  com- 
manding officers  of  armies  grafting  on  supplies  at 
the  same  time  that  they  risk  their  lives  in  battle. 

The  unique  position  of  Germany  today  is  that 
the  nation  as  a  nation  is  served  by  its  citizens  with 


18   SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

respect  and  devotion.  Its  governing  body  is  re- 
garded with  respect  and  this  is  because  it  com- 
mands respect  by  its  actions.  Less,  undoubt- 
edly, than  any  other  country  does  Germany  suf- 
fer from  the  deadening  effects  of  partisan  strug- 
gles while  efficiency  is  demanded,  surely  obtained, 
and  freely  rendered  by  her  public  officials. 

The  secret  of  Germany's  progress  is  largely 
due  to  her  efficient  public  service. 

But  this,  it  must  always  be  kept  in  mind,  is  not 
a  thing  apart  from  Germany,  but  an  expression 
of  the  German  character,  more  particularly 
of  the  public  spirited  phase  of  the  German  citi- 
zen's character. 

The  state  is  always  the  resultant  of  the  char- 
acter of  its  citizens  and  the  citizen  whose  charac- 
ter includes  a  strong  sense  of  public  spirit  can 
justly  be  said  to  be  superior  to  the  citizen  whose 
character  evinces  no  such  phase,  for  public  spirit- 
edness  means  a  willingness  on  the  part  of  the  indi- 
vidual to  sacrifice  his  personal  desires  to  the  wel- 
fare of  the  whole. 

A  body  of  citizens  ready  to  make  such  sacrifices 
will  form  a  greater  state  than  those  unwilling  to 
make  sacrifices  to  the  state. 

This  willingness  and  sense  of  duty  of  the  indi- 
vidual to  the  group  of  individuals,  the  state,  is  a 
highly  marked  characteristic  of  the  German  and 
since  the  fact  of  German  unity,  it  has  had  scope 


DUTY  OF  STATE  TO  THE  CITIZEN       19 

for  exercise  which  it  did  not  previously  possess. 
Unity  has  been  its  opportunity,  progress  its 
abounding  fruit. 

But  while  a  state  is  the  resultant  of  the  char- 
acter of  its  citizens,  it  is  much  more  than  an  aver- 
age of  their  qualities,  indeed  the  morale  altitude 
of  a  state  approaches  the  altitude  of  the  greatest 
conception  of  its  greatest  citizen  multiplied  by  the 
morale  force  of  all  its  citizens. 

The  force  of  a  great  conception  animates  every 
individual,  widens  his  horizon,  inspires  his  actions 
and  gains  for  him  the  added  reassurance  that 
others-,  being  similarly  inspired,  are  by  their  de- 
votion adding  to  the  greatness  of  the  state.  This 
interaction  raises  the  power  of  the  state  to  a  high 
coefficient  and  is  the  final  expression  of  unity. 

It  is  on  a  vast  scale  the  fable  of  the  seven  sticks, 
but  in  the  case  of  national  unity,  the  alliance  not 
only  gains  the  value  of  the  union  of  the  individual 
forces  but  the  individual  force  is  so  intensified 
that  each  stick  becomes  a  rod  of  steel. 

Such  is  German  unity. 

And  the  conception  that  has  had  perhaps  the 
most  powerful  effect  on  German  progress  is  that 
expressed  by  Frederick  the  Great  and  later  re- 
enforced  by  Bismarck,  the  duty  of  the  state  to  the 
citizen. 

Many  nations  satisfy  themselves  with  the 
theory  that  the  duty  which  the  citizen  owes  the 


20    SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

state  is  the  only  duty  that  needs  fulfilling  in  their 
mutual  relations.  But  the  German  conception  is 
that  the  state  having  been  served  by  the  citizen  is 
in  duty  bound  to  serve  the  citizen  in  an  equal  if 
not  greater  degree. 

This  conception  is  an  additional  bulwark  of 
strength  since  the  citizen  feeling  that  the  state  is 
a  friend  and  not  a  mere  parasite  is  inspired  to  still 
greater  sacrifices. 

This  conception  is  one  of  the  great  secrets  of 
German  progress.  It  is  the  force  in  the  frequent 
phrase  "Alle  fur  Einen,  Einer  fur  Alle  (all  for 
one,  one  for  all) ,  which  is  of  such  frequent  occur- 
rence. When  carried  into  effect,  as  it  is  in  Ger- 
many, it  is  an  element  of  kultur,  a  civilization- 
ideal,  of  which  the  nation  may  well  be  proud. 

The  spread  of  such  a  principle  to  other  coun- 
tries meets  with  a  powerful  and  determined  oppo- 
sition for  the  reason,  largely,  that  it  threatens  the 
pockets  of  influential  men  of  business  who  seeing 
their  private  interests  threatened  apply  to  the 
idea  the  term  of  paternalism  and  generally  en- 
deavor to  make  a  bug-a-boo  of  it,  as  they  do  of 
any  idea  that  has  for  them  no  bankable  possibili- 
ties. 

In  a  country  which  contains  a  large  body  of 
wealthy  citizens  who  thus  place  their  interests 
above  the  public  welfare,  a  marked  disruptive  ef- 
fect is  observed  and  since  the  power  which  rules  a 


DUTY  OF  STATE  TO  THE  CITIZEN      21 

country  must  always  be  entrusted  to  the  hands  of 
certain  factions  or  bodies  of  men  for  periods  of 
greater  or  less  length,  it  is  to  the  interests  of  un- 
patriotic men  of  wealth  to  encourage  republican 
principles  since  the  less  government  there  is  the 
greater  will  be  their  freedom  to  prey  upon  the 
helpless  individual  who  under  a  more  paternalistic 
government  would  be  better  protected. 

The  lover  of  liberty  and  freedom  so  called, 
while  sincere  enough  in  his  belief  in  his  principles, 
runs  so  far  away  from  the  regular  paths  of  gov- 
ernment that  he  finds  himself  in  the  wilds  of  the 
plunderers.  Probably  the  freest  and  most  inde- 
pendent citizen  that  ever  lived  was  the  Ameri- 
can Indian,  while  the  one  subject  to  the  greatest 
number  of  regulations  is  the  modern  German. 
The  modern  German  certainly  has  less  freedom 
of  personal  action  than  the  Indian,  but  he  just  as 
certainly  has  a  vastly  greater  freedom  from  the 
encroachments  of  his  fellow  citizens. 

It  is  only  a  question  of  where  you  wish  to  draw 
the  line,  to  what  extent  jtou  are  willing  to  dis- 
pense with  your  own  personal  license  to  preserve 
yourself  from  the  personal  license  of  others. 

The  German  regards  his  civilization-ideal,  his 
kultur,  of  "all  for  the  state  and  the  state  for  all," 
as  a  better  system  than  the  greater  license  which 
the  citizens  of  other  countries  retain  for  them- 
selves. 


22   SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

Is  it  better  or  is  it  not? 

Before  passing  judgment  upon  it,  its  processes 
should  be  studied  and  its  results  understood,  and 
countries  ostensibly  more  democratic  should  ques- 
tion their  institutions  to  find  out  whether  they  are 
really  effective  in  securing  to  the  citizens  the  de- 
gree of  liberty  aimed  at,  whether  in  place  of  a  well 
organized,  responsible  and  effective  "paternal- 
ism" they  do  not  have  an  inefficient,  irresponsible, 
elusive  and  infinitely  divided  system  of  "demo- 
cratic" powers  preying  upon  the  public  instead  of 
carrying  out  the  will  of  the  public  as  the  German 
system  undoubtedly  does,  whether  in  reality  they 
do  not  have  merely  the  forms  of  freedom  and  not 
the  substance. 

There  does  not  appear  to  the  German,  con- 
versant as  he  is  with  its  processes  and  results,  any 
valid  objection  either  in  theory  or  practice  to  the 
German  system.  That  the  nation  should  bear  as 
far  as  practicable  under  modern  conditions  a 
fatherly  relation  to  its  citizens  should  not  offer 
any  violence  to  ideals  of  the  most  democratic. 
By  the  very  complexity  of  modern  life,  the  citi- 
zen is  placed  at  the  mercy  of  the  ill-disposed 
among  his  brother-citizens  to  whose  wiles  and  vio- 
lence he  would  succumb  but  for  the  strong  hand 
of  government.  Without  government  civiliza- 
tion would  be  impossible.  This  is  at  once  the 
most  obvious  yet  the  most  profound  of  social 
principles. 


DUTY  OF  STATE  TO  THE  CITIZEN       23 

In  some  degree,  therefore,  government  must 
act  as  the  protection  of  the  citizen,  because  it  is 
better  fitted  to  protect  him  than  he  is  to  protect 
himself.  The  most  violent  democrat  cannot  dis- 
pute the  principle. 

Does  it  not,  therefore,  follow  that  the  govern- 
ment should  afford  the  citizen  every  protection 
which  can  be  afforded  him  by  government  pro- 
vided such  protection  be  afforded  through  its  in- 
strumentality more  efficaciously  than  otherwise  ? 

Anything  less  than  this  would  be  burdening  the 
individual  citizens  with  duties  more  expensive  for 
them  to  perform  as  individuals  than  as  a  body 
social.  Germans  believe  that  Germany  leads  the 
world  in  efficiency  and  comprehensiveness  of  gov- 
ernmental operation.  Her  enemies  hold  her  ef- 
ficient system  up  to  scorn  and  make  it  appear  that 
the  German  citizen  is  an  oppressed  underling  of 
the  Kaiser.  This  ridiculous  propaganda  is  insti- 
gated and  supported  by  capitalistic  influences 
who  see  in  what  may  be  termed  the  greater  social 
functioning,  diminishing  opportunities  for  profit- 
able employment  of  their  capital.  They  mis- 
represent Germany  and  German  results  in  every 
possible  way  not  only  to  her  disadvantage  but 
much  more  to  the  disadvantage  of  other  countries 
who  would  adopt,  to  a  still  greater  extent,  the  ex- 
pedients she  has  found  so  profitable. 

There  was  a  time  when  every  householder  in 


m        SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

New  York  was  compelled  by  law  to  keep  a  light 
lit  in  front  of  his  house.  Today  the  city  buys 
electric  current  for  street  illumination  from  a 
private  company.  In  the  future,  no  doubt,  it  will 
supply  its  own  current.  In  the  past  its  citizens 
were  compelled  to  pave  the  streets  in  front  of 
their  houses.  Today  the  city  operates  its  own 
paving  plans.  In  the  past,  education  was  costly 
and  there  were  no  libraries.  Today  the  city  pro- 
vides a  vast  school  system,  and  constructs  and 
conducts  one  of  the  greatest  libraries  in  the  world 
free  to  all  citizens. 

At  what  point  in  such  a  process  does  the  gov- 
ernment become  "paternalistic"? 

In  the  light  of  German  progress,  the  charges 
so  freely  advanced  against  her  institutions  and 
systems  are  as  ridiculous  to  the  German  as  the 
charge  of  "paternalism"  against  the  public  li- 
brary would  be  to  the  New  Yorker. 

At  most  the  question  is  but  one  of  constantly 
changing  expediency,  to  what  extent  the  body 
social  should  act  in  its  collective  capacity  and  to 
what  extent  as  individuals. 

Germans  believe  that  everything  that  the  state 
can  do  better  than  the  citizen  should  be  done  by 
the  state.  An  active  body  of  Americans  believe 
that  the  state  should  do  nothing  except  those 
things  which  are  utterly  impossible  to  the  citizen 
acting  individually.     The  choice  of  these  views 


DUTY  OF  STATE  TO  THE  CITIZEN       25 

must  be  left  to  the  public.  Undoubtedly,  much 
lies  in  the  personal  character  of  the  citizen.  The 
German  character  is  more  amenable  to  discipline 
and  uniformity,  more  decisive  in  execution  than 
the  American.  The  degree  to  which  the  state 
may  assume  a  fatherly  attitude  may  safely  per- 
haps be  less  in  a  country  like  America  where  the 
male  parent  himself  is  somewhat  overrun  by  his 
progenity  than  in  Germany  where  parental  au- 
thority has  a  different  significance. 

The  German  idea  of  the  duty  of  the  state  to  the 
citizen  is  that  it  should  exercise  eveiy  function 
which  may  contribute  to  his  welfare  provided  the 
state's  exercise  of  such  function  is  more  efficient 
than  the  exercise  of  such  function  individually. 
In  the  concrete  expression  of  Frederick  the 
Great,  "It  is  the  business  of  a  sovereign  to  allevi- 
ate human  misery." 

The  judgment  upon  such  a  system  is  neces- 
sarily a  judgment  of  facts,  a  judgment  as  to 
whether  human  conditions  are  alleviated,  but  to 
judge  the  facts,  the  facts  must  be  known,  yet  the 
facts  about  Germany  are  but  little  known  in 
America.  Even  noted  politicians  and  famous 
professors  in  public  utterances  base  criticisms  of 
German  affairs  upon  postulations  utterly  false, 
the  result  of  their  almost  complete  ignorance  of 
conditions.  Conclusions  based  upon  lack  of 
knowledge  of  facts  cannot  fail  to  be  misleading. 


26   SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

They  discolor  public  opinion,  breed  prejudice  and 
serve  as  a  barrier  against  the  proper  and  friendly 
relation  of  two  great  nations,  a  result  no  one 
would  deplore  more  than  their  authors,  did  they 
know  the  truth. 

A  fair  working  knowledge  of  what  Germany 
is  doing  is  an  indispensable  requirement  for  every 
one  who  wishes  to  keep  abreast  of  the  times.  It 
is,  indeed,  a  duty  to  know  what  conditions  are,  in 
order  not  be  misled  by  the  uninformed. 

Such  a  knowledge  can  only  be  gained  by  an 
unprejudiced  consideration  of  the  facts  in  the 
case,  and  it  is  to  the  presentation  of  these  facts 
that  the  present  chapters  are  devoted.  And  the 
facts  will  startle  not  only  Americans  but  Ger- 
mans as  well,  particularly  those  long  in  this  coun- 
try who  have  gotten  out  of  touch  with  the  march 
of  progress  abroad.  They  deserve  the  most  care- 
ful consideration  of  every  well-informed  reader. 


CHAPTER  III 

GOVERNMENT    CONTROL    OF    PUBLIC    UTILITIES 

THE  experience  of  Germany  has  proven 
that  in  practice  it  is  advisable  for  the 
government  of  the  state  or  city,  as  the 
case  may  be,  to  control  all  operations  of  what  are 
usually  referred  to  as  natural  monopolies.  That 
is,  those  undertakings  ( 1 ) ,  in  which  competition 
would  serve  to  duplicate  facilities,  without  afford- 
ing better  service,  such  as  railways,  waterways, 
canals,  ferries,  water  works,  gas  works,  tele- 
phones, telegraph,  express,  electric  lighting  and 
power  systems,  and  (2),  in  which  natural  re- 
sources need  to  be  properly  conserved,  such  as 
forests,  irrigation,  mines,  etc. 

In  addition  to  these  operations,  German  cities 
find  it  expedient  to  buy  up  suburban  lands,  erect 
working  men's  houses,  which  they  sell  or  rent, 
conduct  farming  operations  on  vacant  lands  thus 
held,  grow  forests,  and  engage  in  various  lines  of 
business,  such  as  market  halls,  abattoirs,  stock- 
yards, butcher  shops,  flour  mills,  bakeries,  dairies, 
fisheries,  ice  plants,  breweries,  inns  and  restau- 
rants, dancing  halls,  wine  cellars,  mines,  factories, 

27 


28   SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

laundries,  livery  stables,  stone,  brick  and  tile 
works,  bathing  establishments,  sea  and  thera- 
peutic baths,  salt  and  mineral  springs,  and  other 
cure-establishments,  docks,  quays,  cemeteries, 
pawnshops,  and  savings  banks. 

It  may,  at  first  sight,  seem  to  Americans  that  it 
is  no  proper  part  of  municipal  endeavor  to  en- 
gage in  ordinary  business  occupations  of  this 
character.  It  must  be  remembered,  however, 
that  all  of  such  activities  are  not  common  to 
every  city  and  that  such  enterprises  are  not  pri- 
marily entered  into,  as  a  rule,  for  business  pur- 
poses but  rather  as  a  protection  to  the  public. 

Even  in  the  United  States  similar  activities  can 
be  found  in  many  instances.  The  federal  gov- 
ernment supervises  and  fixes  charges  at  Hot 
Springs  for  medicinal  bathing  establishments; 
New  York  City  has  its  sea  bathing  houses  and 
its  municipal  asphalt  paving  plants,  while  water 
works  are  commonly  municipal  undertakings. 
The  laying  out  of  large  suburban  parks  preserves 
to  the  public  the  common  use  of  the  land  even 
though  the  city  does  not  build  houses  thereon. 
New  York  has  several  municipal  markets;  Mil- 
waukee, a  laundry;  Lemmon,  S.  D.,  runs  a  sa- 
loon; South  Carolina  endorsed  dispensaries;  Min- 
neapolis has  an  ice  plant;  Schenectady  had  one, 
but  found  it  unconstitutional  in  New  York  State 
to  sell  ice ;  numerous  similar  plants  exist  in  other 


CONTROL  OF  PUBLIC  UTILITIES         29 

states;  La  Crosse,  Wis.,  runs  a  market;  Norfolk, 
Va.,  has  an  employment  agency;  Chicago  runs 
dance  halls ;  Hibbing,  Minn.,  has  a  municipal  dis- 
trict heating  system,  and  St.  Louis  runs  moving 
picture  shows,  while  several  cities  in  New  Eng- 
land conduct  theatres. 

Approaching  state  control  are  the  numerous 
charitable  and  semi-charitable  institutions,  which 
fill  a  want  that  should  be  properly  supplied  by  the 
government.  These  societies  which  make  a  busi- 
ness of  supplementing  government  facilities  are 
at  once  a  proof  that  the  American  state  and 
municipal  governments  do  not  exercise  their  func- 
tions as  fully  as  they  should  and  an  answer  to  the 
demands  for  proper  government  which  they  at- 
tempt to  fill. 

There  are  loan  societies  to  safeguard  poor  bor- 
rowers against  pawn-broker's  exactions,  even 
though  in  many  states  there  are  laws  regulating 
pawn-brokers'  charges;  there  are  various  socie- 
ties to  assist  litigants,  neglected  children,  mis- 
treated animals,  and  indigent  elderly  persons  of 
various  previous  classes  of  occupations.  The  ex- 
ercise of  these  functions  goes  to  prove  that  gov- 
ernmental operations  are  not  sufficiently  extended 
in  America.  It  is  a  standing  insult  to  public  jus- 
tice that  there  should  be  a  children's  society.  Its 
existence  proves  that  the  American  child  is  not 
sufficiently  protected  by  the  American  state,  as  all 


30        SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

societies  for  the  enforcement  of  particular  laws 
show  similarly  the  weakness  or  inadequacy  of  cen- 
tral authority. 

The  United  States  inspects  meat.  German 
cities  go  a  step  further  and  conduct  the  operation 
of  slaughtering. 

The  United  States  subsidized  the  transcon- 
tinental railways  and  then  abandoned  them  to 
private  exploitation.  Today,  she  is  wiser  and 
is  about  to  build  an  Alaskan  railway.  Germany 
owns  practically  all  of  her  railways. 

The  United  States,  as  do  all  modern  countries, 
operates  the  post.  In  the  not  very  distant  past, 
the  post  was  a  private  enterprise.  We  have  just 
come  to  adopt  parcel  post.  In  a  generation  the 
idea  that  expressing  was  a  private  business  will 
doubtless  seem  as  strange  as  now  appears  the  fact 
that  the  post  was  once  a  private  business. 

Thus  again,  it  is  obvious  that  between  the 
United  States  and  Germany  no  question  of  prin- 
ciple exists  in  the  treatment  of  these  subjects.  It 
is  only  a  question  of  expediency;  to  what  extent 
it  is  feasible  and  desirable  to  have  such  functions 
performed  by  the  municipality  or  the  state. 

The  most  striking  result  of  the  German  system 
is  seen  in  certain  cities  which,  instead  of  imposing 
taxes,  disburse  dividends  to  their  citizens.  This 
Utopian  condition,  it  is  needless  to  say,  exists  also 
in  America  to  a  limited  extent,  in  practically 


CONTROL  OF  PUBLIC  UTILITIES         31 

every  city,  the  difference  between  the  German 
practice  and  the  American  practice  being  that 
the  "dividends"  to  citizens  here  are  limited  to  a 
very  small  number  of  citizens  and  not  the  whole 
body,  in  short  to  politicians  who  control  the  situa- 
tion and  relieve  the  cities  of  the  necessity  for  dis- 
bursing dividends  to  citizens  in  general  by  de- 
flecting surplus  funds  on  their  way  to  the  public 
treasury. 

The  principal  public  utility  controlled  by  the 
German  government  is  the  railroad  system,  as 
practically  all  of  Germany's  railways  are  owned 
by  the  state. 

The  mileage  operated  is  some  40,000  miles, 
about  one-sixth  that  of  the  total  mileage  of  all 
roads  in  the  United  States  and  about  25  per 
cent,  more  than  the  total  mileage  of  French  rail- 
roads and  60  per  cent,  more  than  the  British 
railroads,  the  countries  next  in  order. 

The  capital  invested  in  German  railroads  is 
estimated  by  the  government  at  six  billion  dol- 
lars. The  movement  of  traffic  is  some  twenty- 
one  thousand  million  passenger  miles  and  thirty- 
three  thousand  seven  hundred  million  ton  miles 
per  annum.  The  passenger  revenues  are  two 
hundred  million  dollars  and  the  freight  revenues 
four  hundred  and  seventy-five  million  dollars. 

The  surplus  of  earnings  over  disbursements  is 
about  five  and  three-quarters  per  cent.     This  is 


32   SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

the  real  index  of  the  efficacy  of  governmental  con- 
trol. While  German  roads  are  making  5%  per 
cent.,  French  roads  show  a  general  average  of 
but  4  per  cent.,  British  roads  S1/^  per  cent.,  and 
American  roads  2%  per  cent. 

This  comparison  may  be  somewhat  unfair  as 
regards  the  United  States,  owing  to  the  much 
greater  length  of  hauls  here,  but  it  is  certainly 
fair  as  regards  France  and  Great  Britain  and 
demonstrates  the  efficacy  of  state  control. 

State  control  of  railways  as  in  Germany,  too, 
is  advocated  for  the  United  States  by  some  of 
the  foremost  railroad  executives  of  this  country, 
not  perhaps  so  much  from  the  point  of  view  of 
efficacy  of  management  but  as  a  protection  to  the 
investing  public  as  numerous  great  scandals  of 
road  exploitation  have  occurred  during  the  his- 
tory of  American  railroads,  especially  grave  in- 
stances occurring  recently,  both  in  the  east  and 
west,  in  which  great  systems  have  been  thrown 
into  bankruptcy  by  manipulation  of  their 
finances,  bringing  ruin  to  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  holders  of  railroad  securities.  The  favorite 
method  of  railroad  wreckers  in  the  United  States 
is  first  to  obtain  control  of  a  prosperous  railroad 
system  by  purchase  of  a  certain  proportion  of  the 
stock  in  the  public  market.  If  the  stock  is  widely 
held  by  general  investors,  the  ownership  of  20 
per  cent,  of  the  whole  stock  will  usually  suffice  to 


CONTROL  OF  PUBLIC  UTILITIES         33 

control,  as  the  small  stockholders  ordinarily  give 
their  proxies  to  the  existing  management,  and 
such  a  management  faced  for  a  contest  by  a  20 
per  cent,  block  of  controlled  stock  will  usually 
compromise  and  join  hands  with  it.  The  com- 
pany is  then  reorganized,  large  debts  in  the  form 
of  bond  issues  contracted  and  the  treasury  of  the 
company  enriched  in  every  possible  way.  The 
insiders  then  personally  buy  up  impoverished 
railroads  and  sell  them  to  the  enriched  company 
at  vastly  higher  prices  than  they  paid  for  them. 
In  this  manner  they  extract  huge  profits  and 
leave  the  original  company  burdened  with  the 
losing  roads.  Before  the  conditions  are  realized 
the  wreckers  sell  their  stocks  at  high  prices  and 
with  their  ill-gotten  profits  begin  operations  on 
another  system.  Gradually  the  rottenness  begins 
to  reveal  itself,  evidenced  by  falling  quotations 
and  finally  bankruptcy  overtakes  the  wormeaten 
structure.  The  extent  of  the  robbery  of  Ameri- 
can investors  by  this  means  has  in  a  generation 
perhaps  reached  enough  to  duplicate  the  entire 
railway  system. 

Laws  have  finally  been  passed  which  make  such 
processes  difficult  to  carry  out  at  present,  but  the 
public  has  suffered  these  irreparable  injuries  dur- 
ing a  period  when  German  state-owned  roads 
were  being  efficiently  and  honestly  operated  and 
the  German  public  has  been  mulcted  of  no  such 
sums. 


34    SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

Germans  under  "paternalism"  have  been  pro- 
tected from  such  financial  blood  lust  while  Ameri- 
cans have  suffered  from  such  operations  carried 
on  under  the  very  shadow  of  the  Statue  of  Lib- 
erty. 

Is  it  not  reasonable  to  suppose  that  it  may  be 
possible  to  find  in  German  experience  in  other 
fields,  lessons  which  may  prove  as  profitable  to 
Americans  as  Germany's  example  in  the  treat- 
ment of  the  railroad  problem  would  have  proved 
if  it  had  been  followed  here  twenty  or  thirty  years 
ago? 

The  bankrupt  stockholders  of  great  American 
railroad  systems  will,  doubtless,  share  this  view. 
Americans  have  been  betrayed  by  the  political 
platitudes  of  venal  legislators.  They  have  been 
guarding  the  front  doors  of  liberty  while  being 
plundered  through  the  side  doors  of  graft.  A 
general  knowledge  of  conditions  both  here  and 
abroad  would  have  made  such  a  plundering  im- 
possible. This  is  another  proof  adduced  of  the 
necessity  which  devolves  upon  the  individual  citi- 
zen of  keeping  himself  fully  informed  of  condi- 
tions. 

The  operation  of  other  public  utilities  such 
as  telephones,  telegraphs,  waterways,  express, 
mines,  parcel  posts,  and  the  like,  by  the  govern- 
ment is  carried  out  with  great  success.  Space 
does  not  permit  a  detailed  description  of  the  re- 


CONTROL  OF  PUBLIC  UTILITIES  35 

suits,  but  they  are  even  more  favorable  than  in 
the  case  of  railway  operation. 

This  country  has  adopted  postal  savings  banks 
years  after  their  adoption  abroad.  It  has  re- 
cently remodelled  its  banking  system  on  German 
models.  It  is  slowly  being  forced  to  realize  the 
advantage  of  foreign  models. 

There  was  a  time  when  Uncle  Sam  originated 
his  own  institutions  and  methods.  Why  is  it  to- 
dav  that  he  must  borrow  abroad  and  model  after 
others  ? 

But  even  more  sweeping  than  governmental 
ownership,  indeed  of  astonishing  proportion  is 
the  spread  of  the  unearned  increment  tax  and  the 
industrial  policies  of  the  German  cities.  The 
wide  variety  of  their  enterprises  has  been  noted 
but  their  land  operations  constitutes  one  of  the 
dominant  factors  of  the  German  system  of  to- 
day, as  it  is  of  such  wide  extent. 

Practically  all  German  cities  own  land  both  in- 
side and  outside  their  city  limits.  A  considerable 
part  of  this  owned  land  is  in  forests.  Out  of 
thirty-five  million  acres  of  forest  in  Germany, 
the  cities  own  five  million  acres  and  the  German 
states  eleven  million  acres,  or  together  almost 
half  of  all  the  forest  domain  of  the  whole  empire. 

Of  land  within  city  limits,  German  cities  own 
from  twenty  to  seventy-five  per  cent,  of  their 
total  area.     Berlin  owns  34  per  cent,  of  her  own 


36    SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

area,  Frankfort-on-the-Main  47  per  cent.,  Hei- 
delberg 61  per  cent.,  and  Freiburg  77  per  cent. 

The  ownership  of  lands  outside  of  the  city  lim- 
its is  vastly  more  extensive.  Leading  cities  own 
from  five  to  seventy-five  thousand  acres  of  out- 
side lands.  Breslau,  for  example,  owns  one- 
quarter  of  the  land  within  the  city  limits  and  six 
times  the  whole  area  of  the  city  in  outside  lands. 
Gorlitz,  with  a  population  of  85,000  owns  sixteen 
times  its  area  in  outside  lands  and  owns  903  acres 
of  land  per  1,000  inhabitants.  It  is  the  largest 
land  owner  among  German  cities,  but  Berlin  owns 
25  acres  per  1,000  inhabitants,  and  numbers  of 
cities  hold  upwards  of  100  acres  per  1,000  in- 
habitants. 

German  cities  not  only  buy  lands  to  keep,  but 
also  to  sell  and  they  realize  enormous  profits 
through  the  transactions.  They  block  the  way 
of  private  land  speculators  and  preserve  to  the 
public  the  profits  which  in  America  are  realized 
by  speculators. 

The  ownership  of  such  vast  tracts  of  land  neces- 
sarily involves  the  conduct  of  subsidiary  enter- 
prises and  German  cities  are  free  to  enter  into 
any  enterprise  deemed  suitable  or  necessary  to 
proper  municipal  operation. 

There  is  nothing  particulark/-  new  about  such 
enterprises,  in  fact,  they  are  an  outgrowth  of 
more  or  less  marked  communistic  activities  in 


CONTROL  OF  PUBLIC  UTILITIES  37 

past  centuries  when  Germany  was  filled  with  free 
cities  and  such  cities  with  guilds  of  various  kinds. 
A  city  which  has  the  tradition  of  once  having 
been  an  independent  nation  of  itself  feels  nothing 
strange  in  acquiring  real  estate  holdings.  In- 
deed, it  is  considered  entirely  in  the  usual  course 
of  affairs.  It  may  readily  be  seen  how  with  such 
large  holdings  of  property,  a  city  may  pay  divi- 
dends instead  of  imposing  taxes. 

Though  rich  in  traditions,  German  cities  are 
not  hidebound,  in  fact,  in  initiative  they  com- 
pare favorably  with  the  most  progressive  of  busi- 
ness concerns.  This  is  largely  due,  as  will  be 
later  explained,  to  the  method  of  municipal  gov- 
ernment. 

A  striking  illustration  of  the  alacrity  with 
which  German  cities  adopt  new  ideas  is  seen  in 
the  rapid  spread  of  the  form  of  taxation  known  as 
the  "Wertzuwachssteuer,"  or  increment  tax. 

In  practice  this  system,  though  somewhat  com- 
plicated, is  carried  out  in  a  thoroughgoing  man- 
ner and  the  effect  is  to  discourage  the  holding  of 
land  except  for  purposes  of  improvement.  The 
tax  is  from  10  per  cent,  to  30  per  cent,  of  the  un- 
earned increment  value,  depending  on  certain 
factors  of  length  of  duration,  of  particular  owner- 
ship, improvements,  sales,  assessments  for  sewers, 
street  improvements,  carrying  charges,  etc.,  where 
the  valuation  of  the  real  estate  does  not  increase 


38   SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

from  4  to  5  per  cent,  per  annum  the  tax  is  re- 
mitted. 

The  tax  is  levied  on  the  increase  of  value  of  the 
land  and  not  on  the  income  produced. 

The  proceeds  of  the  tax  are  divided  between 
the  imperial  government  which  receives  50  per 
cent.,  the  states  which  receive  10  per  cent.,  and 
the  cities  which  receive  40  per  cent.  The  tax  is 
subject  to  the  supervision  of  the  imperial  govern- 
ment. 

Since  1905  this  form  of  taxation  has  been 
adopted  by  Berlin,  Hamburg,  Leipzig,  Breslau, 
and  over  500  of  the  German  cities.  It  was  first 
tried  with  great  success  by  Germany  in  Kiao 
Chau,  China,  recently  captured  by  Japan,  and 
was  more  fully  developed  in  Frankfort-on-the- 
Main  in  1904,  after  which  it  spread  all  over  Ger- 
many in  a  few  years. 

It  is  an  adaptation  of  the  single  tax;  a  defi- 
nite and  well  carried  out  application  of  the  idea 
that  as  the  community  itself  creates  the  value  of 
the  unearned  increment  the  expenses  of  city  oper- 
ation should  be  drawn  from  that  source.  In 
practice  the  tax  discourages  land  speculation, 
stimulates  municipal  growth,  prevents  the  tying 
up  in  idleness  of  large  tracts  of  land  in  and  near 
the  city,  and  proves  itself  to  be  the  best  form  of 
taxation  as  yet  devised. 

The  average  increase  value  of  city  real  estate  in 


CONTROL  OF  PUBLIC  UTILITIES         39 

Germany  is  from  4  to  5  per  cent,  per  annum.  In 
rapidly  growing  cities,  it  is  of  course  much  higher. 
It  is  practically  always  materially  greater  than 
the  expenses  of  running  the  city. 

The  failure  of  a  city  to  adopt  the  unearned  in- 
crement tax  means  that  private  land  owners  are 
being  enriched  annually  to  a  greater  extent  than 
the  cost  of  municipal  operations,  that  is,  the  tax 
payers  are  in  effect  presenting  to  the  private 
owners  annually  more  than  the  entire  cost  of  run- 
ning the  city,  for  if  the  tax  were  in  operation  the 
cost  of  the  city's  operation  would  come  out  of 
the  unearned  increment  and  the  tax  payers  would 
not  have  the  present  heavy  burdens  to  bear. 
The  progress  and  prosperity  of  German  munici- 
palities is  thus  largely  accounted  for.  Ameri- 
can cities  still  continue  to  burden  themselves  for 
the  benefit  of  the  private  land  owner.  Surely,  at 
this  point,  valuable  lessons  are  to  be  learned  from 
German  practice. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   GOVERNMENT   AS   A   BUSINESS    PARTNER 

GERMAN  city,  state  and  imperial  govern- 
ments enter  very  freely  into  all  kinds  of 
business  activities  not  only  on  their  own 
account  but  as  both  direct  and  indirect  partners 
of  business  concerns. 

They  also  exercise  a  wide  variety  of  regulative 
powers  and  there  is,  in  fact,  no  business  activity 
or  operation  which  the  governments  hesitate  to 
enter  upon  if  it  be  regarded  as  desirable  to  do 
so. 

The  governments  of  the  different  German 
states  in  1911  received  profits  from  their  various 
business  undertakings  of  $282,749,225,  which 
capitalized  on  a  4  per  cent,  basis,  represents 
roughly  $7,000,000,000  worth  of  state-owned 
dividend  yielding  enterprises.  Thirty-eight  per 
cent,  of  all  the  governmental  financial  require- 
ments were  met  out  of  these  earnings. 

The  free  city  of  Hamburg,  when  it  entered  the 
German  Empire  in  1871,  retained  the  right  to  re- 
main a  free  port,  and  with  the  growth  of  Ger- 
man industry  and  commerce,  Hamburg  has  in- 

40 


GOVERNMENT  AS  BUSINESS  PARTNER      41 

creased  its  harbor  facilities  to  such  an  extent  that 
it  is  now  the  second  seaport  in  the  world.  In  the 
total  foreign  commerce,  it  exceeded  in  1912  that 
of  London  by  more  than  $150,000,000.  The 
German  Empire  contributed  $10,000,000  to- 
wards the  construction  of  the  harbor  facilities, 
while  the  city  contributed  some  $40,000,000. 

The  municipalities,  particularly,  engage  in  a 
wide  variety  of  enterprises,  some  of  which  it  is 
regarded  desirable  to  run  for  profit  while  others 
are  conducted  with  the  idea  of  supplying  the 
product  or  service  at  cost. 

The  cities  do  not  hesitate  to  conduct  operations 
for  profit  and  for  all  the  profit  in  sight  and  out 
of  their  business  enterprises  they  often,  as  has 
been  noted  previously,  derive  a  large  part  of  the 
necessary  revenues  of  government  and  even  pay 
dividends  to  citizens. 

Klingenberg  in  Bavaria,  instead  of  taxing  its 
citizens  pays  them  dividends  of  $100.00  a  year 
each.  The  East  Prussia  town  of  Seeburg  while 
it  does  not  pay  dividends,  imposes  no  taxes. 
Entkirch  on  the  Moselle  imposes  no  taxes  and 
each  householder  gets  a  small  land  holding  rent 
free  and  free  wood  for  fuel. 

Perhaps  the  most  notable  type  of  direct  part- 
nership between  citizens  and  the  government  in 
business  enterprises  is  that  of  the  electrical  sup- 
ply and  service  companies. 


42   SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

A  wide  variety  of  practice  is  found  in  this  field. 
Some  of  the  largest  enterprises  are  those  of  water 
power  plant  developments,  in  which  the  govern- 
ment advances  a  large  proportion  of  the  capital, 
as  the  rate  of  profit  at  the  outset  would  be  too 
small  to  justify  private  capital  in  assuming  the 
responsibility  of  the  work. 

Electrical  energy  from  these  great  installa- 
tions is  made  use  of  in  hundreds  of  cities  within  a 
wide  radius,  and  being  sold  at  a  very  low  rate,  in- 
dustry of  all  kinds  is  promoted  and  built  up. 

In  the  absence  of  such  governmental  initiative, 
such  industries  would  never  have  come  into  ex- 
istence, and  without  the  cheap  light  and  power 
thus  obtainable,  German  manufacturers  would 
not  have  been  able  to  compete  as  they  have  with 
the  manufacturers  of  other  countries. 

The  co-operation  of  the  government  thus  is  seen 
to  be  a  highly  vital  factor  in  German  progress. 

In  cities  out  of  the  reach  of  these  power  instal- 
lations the  government  enters  into  partnerships 
of  various  forms  with  electrical  service  companies 
in  promoting  the  manufacture  and  use  of  current. 

These  generating  companies  deal  not  only  with 
the  government  of  the  empire  but  of  the  cities 
and  enter  into  different  arrangements,  as  the  cir- 
cumstances suggest.  In  some  cities  the  com- 
panies pay  a  royalty  on  their  receipts,  in  others 
both  the  company  and  the  government  contribute 


GOVERNMENT  AS  BUSINESS  PARTNER      43 

the  necessary  capital  and  share  in  the  profits,  but 
the  company  bears  the  losses,  if  any;  in  others 
the  city  supplies  the  capital  and  the  company 
operates  the  plant. 

The  particular  arrangement  depends  entirely 
on  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  but  the  guid- 
ing principle  in  such  undertakings  is  that  the 
government  has  the  same  freedom  of  contractual 
relations  with  business  men  as  if  it  were  a  purely 
business  undertaking  acting  for  the  interest  of  its 
stockholders,  the  citizens  being  regarded  as  the 
stockholders  of  the  social  corporation. 

And  the  German  city  conducts  its  operations 
with  just  as  much,  if  not  more,  ability  than  the 
business  man. 

From  time  immemorial  this  has  been  the  case, 
though  for  a  period,  a  half  century  ago,  the  idea 
of  government  as  a  purely  police  matter  gained 
such  ground  as  to  paralyze  communal  undertak- 
ings. A  recrudescence  of  business  activity  has 
occurred  in  the  last  generation  and  governmental 
business  activity  is  a  growing  and  important 
phase  of  German  progress. 

The  government,  however,  does  not  assume  the 
attitude  of  a  competitor  of  private  business,  but 
rather  that  of  a  leader.  Every  possible  assist- 
ance is  extended  to  the  business  man  in  Germany 
to  enlarge  his  activities  both  at  home  and  abroad, 
in  banking,  in  manufacture,  and  in  commerce. 


44   SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

The  government  employs  a  large  force  of  busi- 
ness agents  and  technical  experts  who  examine 
conditions  abroad  in  all  lines,  who  report  on  pros- 
pective developments,  progress  in  inventions  and 
manufacturing  for  the  benefit  of  bankers  and  the 
technical  side  of  manufacture  at  home,  enabling 
German  manufacturers  constantly  to  keep  up  to 
date ;  at  the  same  time  pointing  out  trade  oppor- 
tunities and  showing  ways  by  which  they  may  best 
be  taken  advantage  of.  They  arrange  for  the 
establishment  of  banks  and  means  of  speedy  com- 
munication and  transport  and  act  in  every  way  as 
heralds  of  business. 

To  the  activity  of  these  foreign  agents  is  due 
much  of  Germany's  vast  export  trade. 

The  attention  of  the  government,  however,  is 
devoted  to  the  promotion  of  business  activity  at 
home  no  less  than  abroad,  and  it  affords  manu- 
facturers and  business  men  facilities  which  are 
unknown  in  other  countries. 

It  assumes  an  active  and  far-seeing  control 
over  the  operations  of  business  firms  and  regu- 
lates competition  with  the  object  of  protecting 
business  men  against  trade  wars  among  them- 
selves, and  of  safeguarding  the  public  against  un- 
due price  fluctuations.  This  in  turn  makes  a 
stable  market  upon  which  manufacturers  and 
business  men  may  base  reasonable  commitments 
and  pursue  definite  operations. 


GOVERNMENT  AS  BUSINESS  PARTNER      45 

The  result  is  that  the  whole  fabric  of  business 
life  moves  forward  in  a  well-ordered  progress  and 
is  not  marked  by  the  injurious  and  destructive 
struggles  of  unbridled  competition  such  as  is 
found  in  the  United  States  where  the  smaller 
business  organizations  are  constantly  being  ex- 
terminated by  the  rapacity  of  the  larger  units. 

In  the  treatment  of  trusts,  Germany  shows  the 
enormous  advantage  of  a  proper  participation  in 
business  life  by  the  government. 

Germany  recognizes  the  advantage  to  the  pub- 
lic in  the  carrying  out  of  certain  business  activi- 
ties on  a  larger  scale  and  therefore  does  not  at- 
tempt to  suppress  the  trusts,  but  supervises  their 
organization  and  operation  in  such  a  way  as  to 
obtain  the  greatest  degree  of  justice  for  all  con- 
cerned. 

The  theory  upon  which  the  government  acts  is 
that  the  trusts  or  syndicates,  known  better  as 
cartels,  do  not  violate  the  principles  of  trade  lib- 
erty but  are  a  real  protection  to  the  public  as  a 
whole. 

Under  the  rulings  of  the  courts  on  the  subject, 
absolute  or  partial  monopolization  by  many  car- 
tels has  been  brought  about,  and  restriction  of 
output  and  price  imposed,  which  makes  the  busi- 
ness remunerative  and  tends  to  the  satisfaction 
of  the  public  and  the  stability  of  business. 

The  German  cartel  is  somewhat  different  from 


46   SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

the  American  trust,  as  the  American  trust  has 
at  present  developed,  and  resembles  more  the 
original  form  of  American  combination  known  as 
the  pool. 

Pools  were  originally  organized  by  American 
business  men  as  a  means  of  stopping  ruinous 
trade  competition,  which  had  the  effect  of  cutting 
prices  to  such  a  point  that  the  business  became 
unprofitable  and  bankruptcy  and  stagnation  fol- 
lowed, disorganizing  allied  and  dependent  lines 
of  business. 

Competitors  on  going  into  pools  made  various 
arrangements,  some  to  regulate  prices,  others  al- 
lotting certain  territory  to  certain  members,  and 
in  some  instances  all  the  earnings  were  pooled  and 
divided  among  the  members  in  certain  agreed  pro- 
portions. 

The  pools  proved  successful  in  accomplishing 
the  purpose  for  which  they  were  organized,  but 
not  content  with  fair  profits,  became  oppressive 
when  strong  enough  to  control  the  field,  where- 
upon the  injured  consumers  appealed  to  the  na- 
tional and  state  governments  and  laws  were 
passed  making  pools  illegal,  and  seeking  to  re- 
store a  state  of  competition. 

The  uninformed  state  of  public  opinion  at  that 
time,  and  the  incompetent  legislative  programs 
following,  plunged  the  United  States  into  a 
most  disastrous  commercial  anarchy.     The  coun- 


GOVERNMENT  AS  BUSINESS  PARTNER      47 

try  is  still  suffering  and  will  long  continue  to 
suffer  from  the  effects  of  the  fatally  wrong  policy 
then  adopted  and  still  persisted  in,  the  policy  that 
a  condition  of  unbridled  competition  is  a  desirable 
state  for  the  business  world. 

Business  men,  finding  that  they  could  not  pro- 
tect themselves  from  each  other  by  means  of  pools, 
began  to  form  trusts,  which  were  pools  of  which 
there  was  no  written  evidence,  that  is,  the  mem- 
bers trusted  each  other  in  their  illegal  arrange- 
ments and  "gentlemen's  agreements"  took  the 
place  of  pooling  contracts.  This  form  of  opera- 
tion proving  dangerous  and  unstable,  the  passage 
of  laws  was  secured  in  certain  states,  chiefly  New 
Jersey,  enabling  holding  companies  to  be  organ- 
ized. By  this  means  an  enormous  company 
would  be  organized  which  would  purchase  out- 
right the  business  of  all  the  competitors  in  a  given 
line,  and  the  former  rivals  in  business  would  be- 
come stockholders  of  and  often  officials  of  the 
holding  company,  operating  their  plants  as  in- 
tegral portions  of  the  controlling  concern.  The 
name  of  trust  became  attached  to  these  great  com- 
panies, which  were  immediately  formed  in  vast 
numbers,  so  that  in  the  fifteen  years,  between 
1890  and  1905,  a  great  part  of  the  business  of 
the  whole  country  came  to  be  organized  in  the 
form  of  these  gigantic  companies. 

During  this  time  the  lawmakers  and  executors 


48    SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

of  the  federal  government  were  conveniently 
oblivious  of  the  process,  and  not  until  too  late  was 
public  opinion  aroused. 

Thereupon  laws  intended  to  "unscramble" 
these  great  and  complicated  concerns  were  passed, 
and  after  long  and  intolerable  delays  the  govern- 
ment is  slowly  proceeding  to  break  them  up  into 
smaller  but  still  formidable  units,  which  for  years 
are  unlikely  to  become  competitors  of  each  other. 

Thus  the  government  has  failed  to  carry  out 
the  wishes  of  the  people  and  the  people  them- 
selves have  not  expressed  wishes  which  would 
solve  the  problem.  They  have  demanded  de- 
struction of  the  trusts  but  only  aim  to  restore 
the  very  conditions  out  of  which  the  trusts  grew. 
There  has  been  no  movement  as  yet  to  establish 
such  conditions  of  properly  limited  competition 
as  will  enable  business  men  to  exist  and  not  be 
destroyed  by  richer  organizations. 

The  policy  of  Germany  has  been,  on  the  con- 
trary, one  which  disregarding  the  fallacies  of 
uninformed  popular  opinion,  which  in  this  coun- 
try is  usually  formed  by  an  interested  partisan 
press,  and  taking  all  the  elements  into  considera- 
tion, stepped  in  at  the  critical  juncture  and  es- 
tablished a  condition  of  compromise  calculated  to 
promote  the  best  interests  of  all  concerned.  The 
pools  were  not  forbidden,  but  the  government,  by 
taking  a  hand  in  their  operations,  prevented  the 


GOVERNMENT  AS  BUSINESS  PARTNER      49 

extortion  and  exploitation  of  the  public  and  regu- 
lated the  relations  of  their  members. 

The  result  is  that  there  is  no  trust  problem  in 
Germany.  Even  the  Socialists  are  contented 
with  the  operations  of  the  cartels,  as  they  believe 
they  are  a  step  toward  ultimate  complete  govern- 
mental control. 

Had  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 
not  decided  against  consolidation  of  railroads  in 
the  Northern  Pacific  case,  there  is  but  little  doubt 
that  by  this  time  all  the  railroads  of  the  country 
would  have  been  organized  into  a  few  large 
groups,  which  could  have  very  simply  been  taken 
over  by  the  government,  avoiding  the  enormous 
losses  to  stockholders  which  have  ensued  in  inter- 
ested  operations  of  insiders  since  that  time. 

The  disastrous  step  taken  by  our  lawmakers  in 
breaking  up  the  pools  and  thus  driving  business 
men  into  the  formation  of  enormous  corporations 
did  not  occur  in  Germany.  The  result  is  that 
the  public  not  only  does  not  object  to  the  cartels 
but  even  supports  them.  The  only  friction  that 
develops  in  the  cartels  is  internal  antagonism 
of  members. 

A  cartel  is  not  a  single  large  corporation,  but  a 
combination  of  independent  firms  and  companies 
who  enter  into  an  agreement  lasting  for  a  certain 
term  of  years,  usually  not  more  than  five.  No 
shares  of  stocks  are  issued  by  the  cartel.     The 


50    SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

members  of  the  cartels  are  usually  companies  of 
two  kinds;  the  ordinary  stock  company,  issuing 
shares  of  limited  liability,  and  the  company  issu- 
ing "Kuxe"  shares,  which  are  assessible  at  any 
time  and  of  unlimited  liability,  having  the  prac- 
tical effect  of  making  the  holders  members  of  a 
firm. 

Each  member  company  of  a  cartel  has  a  repre- 
sentative on  the  board  of  the  cartel  and  this  board 
manages  the  affairs  of  the  cartel.  Its  principal 
duty  is  to  fix  the  quota  of  the  whole  output  which 
is  permitted  to  the  several  members.  Each  mem- 
ber desires  as  large  a  quota  of  production  as  pos- 
sible, and  if  dissatisfied  with  its  allotment,  on  the 
expiration  of  the  cartel  has  the  privilege  of  re- 
fraining from  re-entering  and  of  conducting  its 
business  independently. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  even  independent  concerns 
adopt  the  standards  of  the  cartels  and  do  not 
enter  into  unjustifiable  competition. 

If  they  attempted  to  do  so,  or  if  the  cartel  at- 
tempted monopolization,  it  would  be  quickly 
brought  to  book  by  the  courts  for  violation  of  the 
laws  against  unfair  competition,  which  are  drastic 
and  promptly  enforced. 

The  government  itself  not  only  regulates  the 
operation  of  the  cartel  but  is  at  times  a  member, 
operating  its  works  and  limiting  its  output  and 
selling  at  prices  fixed  by  the  cartel  board. 


GOVERNMENT  AS  BUSINESS  PARTNER      51 

Whenever  it  is  necessary  to  carry  out  the 
proper  functions,  special  laws  are  passed,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  potash  syndicate,  which  is  com- 
posed of  seventy-six  members,  and  which  has  a 
complete  monopoly  of  the  field  producing  only 
certain  amounts  and  selling  at  fixed  prices. 

The  United  States  has  a  trust  problem,  it  has 
destructive  and  wasteful  business  competition,  its 
smaller  business  men  must  struggle  to  exist,  and 
the  public  is  continually  mulcted  because  of  trusts, 
all  arising  out  of  the  uninformed  condition  of 
public  opinion  at  a  critical  time,  and  the  reluc- 
tance to  place  in  the  hands  of  the  government 
powers  of  pool  regulation.  Even  yet  public 
opinion  does  not  recognize  that  the  true  solution 
is  regulation  and  not  unbridled  competition.  The 
happy  results  of  the  German  policy  deserve  the 
attention  of  every  public-spirited  American. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE   GREATEST    SECRET   OF    GERMAN    PROGRESS 

THE  tremendous  progress  which  Ger- 
many has  made  within  little  more  than  a 
generation  has  been  the  marvel  of  the 
world,  and  not  only  the  marvel  but  for  some  parts 
of  the  world,  a  mortal  terror. 

Germany's  growth,  her  precision,  her  efficiency, 
her  unified  action  have  made  her  competitors 
stand  aghast.  Nothing  seems  to  be  able  to  stop 
her.  Everything  that  Germany  does  is  done 
with  the  minimum  of  effort  and  the  maximum  of 
result. 

In  Germany  it  works.  Whatever  it  is,  it 
works,  and  it  works  with  irresistible  power. 

In  other  countries  it  does  not  work.  Or  if  it 
works,  it  works  badly. 

And  when  we  come  upon  the  real  secret  of  what 
it  is  that  works  and  how  it  works,  the  funda- 
mental secret  of  Germany's  progress  will  be  re- 
vealed, the  fountain  head  will  have  been  reached. 

The  thing  that  happens  is  that  in  Germany, 
largely  by  the  accident  of  political  considerations, 

52 


THE  SECRET  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS      53 

a  form  of  government  has  been  evolved  which,  in 
the  midst  of  the  relics  of  by-gone  forms  of  gov- 
ernment, is  able  to  accomplish  its  purposes,  the 
purposes  of  all  governments,  that  of  carrying  out 
the  will  of  the  people,  in  a  more  effective  manner 
than  that  of  any  other  existing  form  of  govern- 
ment. 

Imagine  the  power  of  the  government  of  the 
United  States,  for  example,  or  of  any  govern- 
ment, if  the  will  of  the  people  could  be  instantly 
ascertained  and  instantly  put  into  effect  by  a 
single,  responsive  and  responsible  instrument. 
It  would  be  irresistible.  It  would  be  the  ideal  of 
government,  the  apotheosis  of  democracy. 

The  government  of  Germany  comes  nearer 
that  ideal  than  does  the  government  of  any  other 
country,  and  to  the  enormous  effectiveness  of  its 
form  of  government  is  due  in  an  overwhelming 
measure,  its  success. 

Unless  other  countries  put  into  practice  the 
principles  which  are  so  effective  in  Germany, 
there  is  no  question  but  that  within  a  few  genera- 
tions Germany  must  outstrip  all  the  other  coun- 
tries of  the  world  combined. 

America,  however,  is  already  experimenting 
with  the  same  governmental  principle,  locally  ap- 
plied and  without  realizing  that  it  is  the  same 
principle  that  has  made  Germany  what  it  is  to- 
day.    The  principle  has  as  yet  no  name  but  it  will 


54   SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

undoubtedly  in  time  acquire  a  name.  For  the 
present  purposes  it  may  be  termed  a  polyocracy. 
To  understand  its  meaning,  it  will  be  necessary  to 
describe  the  salient  features  of  the  very  complex 
governmental  system  of  Germany,  which  is  but 
imperfectly  understood  even  by  many  Germans, 
but  which  contains,  due,  as  stated,  to  the  acci- 
dents of  political  exigencies,  the  working  appa- 
ratus which  produces  the  wonderful  results  and 
which  works  in  spite  of  the  complexity  rather 
than  because  of  it. 

In  order  not  to  be  deflected  by  non-essentials, 
it  will  be  necessary  to  lay  aside  for  the  moment, 
criticisms  of  the  German  government  system  due 
to  what  we  term  gerrymandering,  which  is  not  a 
vital  principle  but  rather  a  disease.  To  under- 
stand the  tree  of  government  we  must  imagine  it 
stripped  of  the  disease  or  fungus  of  the  gerry- 
mander, for  that  has  nothing  to  do  with  its  life 
and  proper  growth.  Gerrymandering  is  no 
worse  in  Germany  than  in  the  United  States,  for 
here  Rhode  Island  has  as  many  votes  in  our  Sen- 
ate as  has  New  York  while  3,600,000  farmers  in 
New  York  State  overrule  5,500,000  citizens  of 
New  York  City  through  so  laying  out  the  bound- 
aries of  the  state's  election  districts  as  to  vitiate 
the  suffrages  of  the  city  dwellers. 

To  begin  with,  the  German  Empire  is  not  a 
monarchy.     These  misnomers  prove  a  powerful 


THE  SECRET  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS      55 

source  of  error  to  Americans  in  dealing  with  Ger- 
man institutions  and  government. 

The  German  Empire  is  a  confederation  of 
what  were  once  kingdoms,  duchies,  states,  and 
free  cities.  All  these  sovereign  members  upon 
entering  into  the  confederation,  surrendered  their 
sovereignty  to  the  "empire"  as  regards  foreign  re- 
lations and  such  functions  as  coinage,  tariffs,  and 
certain  others  best  administered  by  a  central  gov- 
ernment, but  retained  their  individual  powers  to 
a  much  greater  extent  than  did  the  states  of  the 
American  union  when  it  was  formed. 

The  kingdoms  which  compose  the  German 
Empire  still  have  their  kings,  their  courts,  their 
houses  of  lords  and  commons,  their  local  govern- 
ments, and  practically  all  the  procedure  and  pow- 
ers over  their  own  affairs  which  they  formerly  ex- 
ercised. 

Of  these  kingdoms  Prussia  was  by  far  the  larg- 
est and  it  now  has  42,000,000  of  the  67,000,000 
population  of  the  whole  empire. 

The  confederation  which  we  now  know  as  the 
German  Empire  succeeded  a  partial  previous 
confederation  known  as  North  German  Bund 
(union) .  In  that  bund  the  King  of  Prussia  was 
made  president  of  the  bund  and  also  commander- 
in-chief  of  the  united  armies,  still  retaining  his 
complete  powers  as  King  of  Prussia  with  the  ex- 
ception that  Prussia  surrendered  her  sovereignty, 


56        SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

as  a  kingdom  among  the  other  kingdoms  of  the 
world  to  the  bund.  When  the  German  Empire 
was  formed  by  Bismarck,  the  same  conditions 
were  put  in  force,  and  thus  the  German  Empire 
is  a  United  States  of  German  Kingdoms  in  which 
the  King  of  Prussia,  whoever  he  may  be,  is  the 
president  with  the  title  of  "German  Kaiser,"  a 
style  especially  adopted  rather  than  Emperor  of 
Germany  or  Emperor  of  the  Germans,  so  as  not 
to  offend  the  other  kings. 

Thus,  a  German  is  not  a  citizen  of  the  empire, 
is  not  a  subject  of  the  emperor,  but  is  a  subject  or 
citizen  of  whatever  particular  kingdom  or  state 
that  he  may  belong  to.  In  fact,  the  Kaiser  or 
emperor,  is  nothing  more  than  the  president  of 
the  league  of  kingdoms.  William  is  thus  only  a 
psychological  emperor  and  not  a  real  one,  and  as 
German  Kaiser  has  vastly  less  actual  power  than 
the  President  of  the  United  States. 

However,  as  King  of  Prussia,  as  king  over 
42,000,000  of  Germany's  67,000,000  population, 
he  retains  his  royal  power  and  prerogatives,  for 
the  Kingdom  of  Prussia  is  still  a  powerful  mon- 
archy, so  strong  that  the  other  kingdoms  of  the 
"Empire"  could  scarcely  withdraw  even  if  they 
wished,  no  more  than  could  an  American  state 
withdraw  from  our  union. 

Although  the  comparison  can  at  best  only  be  a 
rough  one,  an  idea  of  the  organization  of  the  Ger- 


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THE  SECRET  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS      57 

man  Empire  may  be  had  from  supposing  the 
eastern  part  of  the  United  States  a  kingdom, 
united  to  the  various  western  states,  each  as  king- 
doms with  kings  and  nobilities,  in  a  union  effected 
by  sending  ambassadors  to  Washington,  each 
representing  his  state  with  absolute  powers,  and 
then  giving  to  this  body  of  ambassadors  the  au- 
thority at  present  given  to  the  U.  S.  Senate,  the 
U.  S.  Supreme  Court,  and  the  President,  and 
placing  an  "emperor"  over  all  with  about  the 
power  of  the  Vice-President  over  the  Senate,  but 
keeping  the  lower  house  of  Congress  spread  all 
over  the  country,  as  a  check  against  the  house  of 
ambassadors,  the  said  "emperor"  being,  however, 
the  king  of  the  eastern  part  or  kingdom. 

In  practice,  however,  it  would  work  out  more 
as  though  our  governors  of  states  had  kings  over 
them  and  went  to  Washington  to  govern  in  place 
of  the  Senate,  the  Supreme  Court,  and  the  Pres- 
ident, checked  only  by  the  lower  house  of  Con- 
gress and  an  "emperor"  having  no  great  power 
as  president  of  the  body  but  with  royal  power  as 
king  of  his  own  two-thirds  of  the  country. 

The  German  government  is  thus  composed  of 
the  Bundesrat  (literally,  council  of  the  union), 
corresponding  to  a  body  of  governor-ambassa- 
dors in  the  supposition  just  cited,  the  Reichstag 
(literally,  empire-assembly  or  meeting)  which 
corresponds  to  our  lower  house  of  Congress,  and 


58    SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

the  president  of  the  bund,  or  the  German  Kaiser. 

The  Bundesrat  is  the  most  important,  in  fact, 
the  decisive  element  of  the  government.  It  con- 
sists of  58  members,  17  being  Prussian,  6  Bava- 
rian, 4  Saxon,  and  4  Wurttembergers,  the  rest 
being  from  other  kingdoms  and  state-cities  in 
lesser  numbers. 

The  Bundersrat  sits  in  a  legislative  sense  con- 
tinuously and,  with  the  Kaiser,  has  power  to  dis- 
solve or  terminate  the  Reichstag,  which  is  com- 
posed of  397  members,  at  any  time  during  its 
term  of  five  years,  in  which  case  a  new  Reichstag 
must  be  elected  within  60  days  and  convened 
within  90  days  for  a  new  term  of  five  years. 

The  Reichstag  is  elected  over  the  Empire  gen- 
erally. The  members  are  elected  by  districts  but 
are  not  responsible  to  the  instructions  of  their  con- 
stituents but  vote  freely  in  the  interests  of  the 
whole  people. 

The  members  of  the  Bundesrat  however,  are 
strictly  responsible  to  their  particular  kingdoms 
and  states  and  vote  in  accordance  with  the  views 
of  their  particular  monarchies.  It  is  as  if  Con- 
gress in  the  United  States  were  elected  without 
reference  to  state  lines  and  the  senators  were  not 
two  for  each  state  but  roughly  in  proportion  to 
the  population  of  the  states  and  always  acting 
under  instructions. 

When  a  law  is  to  be  passed  it  may  originate 


THE  SECRET  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS      59 

either  in  the  Bundesrat  or  in  the  lower  house,  and 
either  may  amend.  When  they  agree,  it  becomes 
a  law  without  the  necessity  of  being  approved  by 
the  Kaiser  and  is  not  subject  to  any  power  of  veto 
on  his  part,  such  as  the  President  of  the  United 
States  is  entitled  to  exercise. 

As  a  matter  of  routine  he  signs  it,  sees  that  it 
is  technically  in  the  proper  form,  and  has  it  pub- 
lished, but  he  must  do  this  in  any  event,  so  that 
he  may  be  said,  in  this  respect,  to  be  nothing 
more  than  the  deputy  of  the  German  Empire. 

In  other  respects  he  has  more  power.  Like  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  he  is  commander- 
in-chief  of  the  army  and  navy.  He  also  appoints 
the  Imperial  Chancellor. 

Here  comes  in  another  of  the  remarkable  fea- 
tures of  the  German  government,  for  the  Im- 
perial Chancellor,  who  is  the  presiding  officer  of 
the  Bundesrat  of  which  the  Kaiser  is  the  presi- 
dent, represents  German  policy  and  has  under 
him  as  subordinates  all  the  heads  of  departments 
who  correspond  in  other  countries  to  cabinet  min- 
isters. He  is  a  cabinet  with  its  powers  unified  in 
one  member.  When  the  Imperial  Chancellor  re- 
signs it  indicates  a  break  between  the  Kaiser  and 
the  legislature,  that  is,  if  he  resigns  from  lack  of 
a  vote  of  confidence  on  the  part  of  the  Bundesrat. 

To  Americans  the  significance  of  this  does  not 
appear  very  great,  as  the  members  of  the  Presi- 


60    SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

dent's  cabinet  are  not  particularly  important  po- 
litically, being  generally  personal  friends  and  ad- 
visers of  the  President. 

In  England  and  France,  however,  where  the 
legislative  bodies  are  composed  of  a  number  of 
political  parties  and  not  of  two  large  parties  as 
with  us,  the  King  of  England  or  the  President 
of  France  appoints  a  group  of  men  as  a  cabinet, 
and  must  so  make  his  selections,  that  the  group  of 
men  he  selects  will  have  the  confidence  of  the 
legislative  branch.  Such  a  cabinet  is  the  real  seat 
of  government.  If  at  any  time  it  proposes  a 
measure  which  is  defeated  in  the  legislature  it 
must  resign  or  the  legislative  body  must  be  dis- 
solved by  the  king  and  a  new  election  held  to  find 
out  if  the  public  supports  the  cabinet  or  the  legis- 
lature. 

In  a  country  with  a  cabinet,  the  cabinet  must 
always  represent  the  will  of  the  people.  This  it 
does,  roughly  speaking.  The  American  cabinet 
represents  nothing  but  the  President's  personal 
selection  of  head  clerks  or  free-advice  givers,  and 
even  then  only  those  of  the  party  at  the  moment 
in  power.  The  foreign  cabinet  system  thus  re- 
flects much  more  effectually  the  will  of  the  people 
than  does  the  American  system,  which  can  only 
reflect  the  will  of  the  people  at  intervals  of  two 
years  and  then  all  issues  must  be  lumped  in  the 
platforms  of  the  two  great  parties  so  that  on  any 


THE  SECRET  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS      61 

but  the  most  important  issues,  the  will  of  the  peo- 
ple is  never  expressed. 

The  American  form  of  government,  although 
based  on  the  most  altruistic  of  principles,  is  an 
extremely  defective  form  in  execution,  and  one 
through  which  the  will  of  the  people  can  be  ex- 
pressed only  after  much  delay  and  never  with  the 
proper  precision  and  effect. 

The  cabinet  system  of  England  is  much  bet- 
ter, for  the  King  is  only  a  figure-head,  a  royal 
rubber  stamp,  and  the  cabinet  must  represent 
more  acutely  the  will  of  the  people  since  it  is 
subject  to  dissolution  at  any  time  that  an  issue  of 
sufficient  importance  warrants  the  action.  In 
France  resignations  of  the  cabinet  are  frequent 
and  the  will  of  the  people  is  much  more  rapidly 
and  effectively  expressed  by  this  means  than  it  is 
by  the  inflexible  American  system. 

In  Germany,  the  Imperial  Chancellor  must  al- 
ways, in  his  policies,  represent  the  will  of  the 
Bundesrat  and  the  Reichstag.  If  at  any  time  he 
loses  their  confidence,  the  Kaiser  must  either  find 
a  new  chancellor  or  dissolve  the  legislature  and 
seek  in  a  new  election  the  will  of  the  people. 

The  great  prestige  of  the  Kingdom  of  Prussia 
upon  the  German  Empire,  however,  must  be 
taken  into  consideration.  The  Kingdom  of 
Prussia  has  a  Landtag,  composed  of  an  upper 
and  a  lower  house.     The  upper  house  (Herren- 


62    SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

haus)  is  composed  of  327  members,  princes,  lords, 
burgomasters,  and  various  high  dignitaries  who 
hold  office  for  life.  The  lower  house  of  deputies 
( Abgeordnetehaus)  numbers  443  members,  is  se- 
lected by  popular  votes  and  compares  to  the  Eng- 
lish parliament;  Prussia  having  practically  the 
population  of  Great  Britain.  There  is  also  a 
Prussian  cabinet  appointed  by  the  King  of 
Prussia  who,  as  noted,  is  by  virtue  of  his  position 
as  King  of  Prussia,  the  German  Emperor. 

Here,  however,  William  has  great  powers, 
since  his  cabinet  is  not  responsible  to  either  branch 
of  the  Landtag,  but  to  him  alone,  so  there  is  no 
popular  expression  of  the  will  of  the  people  which 
can  effect  his  policies  directly.  His  indirect 
check  is  the  lower  house  of  deputies  which  must 
concord  with  the  upper  house  in  measures.  It 
must  always  be  remembered  that  the  kingdoms, 
and  particularly  the  kingdom  of  Prussia,  retains 
vastly  more  power  relative  to  the  general  govern- 
ment than  do  the  American  states,  for  almost  all 
laws  are  executed  by  the  royal  governments,  even 
though  made  by  the  Imperial  Government. 

The  lower  house  of  deputies,  however,  is  not 
elected  by  popular  vote  in  the  ordinary  sense,  but 
in  another  way.  The  amount  of  taxes  is  divided 
into  three  parts.  The  payers  of  each  portion 
have  equal  voting  powers.  Thus  in  1912,  in  Ber- 
lin, practically  720  people  determined  the  city's 
representation. 


THE  SECRET  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS      63 

In  all  of  Prussia,  260,000  wealthy  tax  payers 
have  one-third  the  voting  power,  870,000  have 
another  third,  and  6,500,000  poor  voters  have  the 
other  third.  In  Berlin,  the  first  class  of  voters 
averaged  $7,500  in  tax  payments,  the  second  class 
$218,  and  the  third  class  $11. 

It  is  thus  apparent  that  in  Prussia  the  govern- 
ment is  one  of  property  qualifications  rather  than 
popular  suffrage. 

In  addition  in  Prussia  the  king  appoints  the 
Landrate  or  governors,  who  have  charge  of  the 
local  government  of  districts.  It  is  as  though 
the  President  of  the  United  States  appointed  the 
governors  of  states  as  he  does  governors  of  terri- 
tories. These  officials,  who  have  great  power,  are 
responsible  to  the  king  alone  and  they  govern 
locally  with  much  less  consideration  of  local  in- 
terests than  of  the  interests  of  the  kingdom  as  a 
whole.  There  is  no  graft  under  them,  no  more 
than  in  the  United  States  revenue  service. 

As  the  Bundesrat  is  composed  of  representa- 
tives from  the  twenty-two  kingdoms  and  states 
and  three  city-states  of  the  empire,  it  will  be  seen 
that  they  are  representatives  of  the  states  and  not 
of  the  people  directly.  The  Bundesrat  members 
are  appointed  by  the  individual  kingdoms  and 
states,  as  the  President  of- the  United  States  ap- 
points ambassadors,  but  the  Bundesrat  is  the 
judge  of  the  qualifications  of  its  members,  having 


64   SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

the  power  enjoyed  in  that  respect  by  the  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States. 

This  power  is  really  the  ultimate  power  in  a 
state  and  its  exercise  by  the  Bundesrat  and  the 
authority  which  the  Bundesrat  has  to  extend  its 
own  powers,  gives  to  that  body  what  German 
jurists  style  the  Kompetenz-Kompetenz,  that  is, 
the  competency  of  deciding  of  its  own  compe- 
tency, which  is  a  prerequisite  of  any  representa- 
tive body  if  it  is  to  maintain  its  power  and  inde- 
pendence. 

The  German  Empire,  as  will  be  seen,  is  in  real- 
ity a  republic,  with  the  King  of  Prussia  as  its 
hereditary  president  and  commander-in-chief  of 
the  armv  and  navy.  The  real  force  of  its  govern- 
ment  is  located  in  the  Bundesrat,  the  president 
or  German  Kaiser  having  very  limited  powers. 

Thus  Germany  is  much  more  democratic  in 
government  than  England,  for  example.  When 
war  was  declared  by  Germany,  it  was  not  the 
Kaiser  who  exercised  that  power,  but  the  Bun- 
desrat, while  England  was  plunged  into  war  by 
Grey  without  the  House  of  Lords  or  the  House 
of  Commons  being  consulted.  Russia  went  to 
war  at  the  command  of  the  Czar  without  any 
pretense  of  consulting  the  Duma. 

The  members  of  the  Bundesrat  are  men  of 
great  prestige  and  prominence  in  their  respective 
fields.     They  include  the  greatest  executives  of 


THE  SECRET  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS      65 

large  enterprises  and  trusts,  the  most  noted  law- 
yers and  professors,  statesmen  of  the  highest 
repute,  financiers  and  bankers  of  the  first  rank, 
great  land  and  realty  owners,  and  prominent 
manufacturers  and  merchants,  and  the  body  is 
thus  composed  of  the  foremost  minds  of  the  em- 
pire. It  is  to  this  body  that  Germany  entrusts 
her  destiny,  and  not,  as  is  popularly  supposed  in 
America,  to  the  Kaiser. 

Indeed,  to  the  German  coming  to  this  country, 
the  enormous  place  in  the  public  mind  occupied 
by  the  Kaiser  is  a  great  surprise.  In  Germany 
his  powers  and  prerogatives  are  understood  and 
he  stands  in  his  true  relation  to  the  other  branches 
of  the  government.  In  America,  however,  the 
Kaiser  appears  to  be  the  dominating  spirit  of  Ger- 
many. This  misapprehension  of  his  real  position 
is  the  source  of  much  error  in  judging  Germany's 
relations  to  this  country.  Bismarck,  too,  looms 
much  larger  in  America  than  he  does  in  Germany, 
while  the  Bundesrat,  the  true  power  of  the  em- 
pire, is  only  known  as  a  legislative  term. 

The  members  of  the  Bundesrat  and  Reichstag 
serve  without  pay.  The  bodies  are  co-ordinate 
branches,  but  the  unique  feature  of  the  German 
government  is  in  the  Bundesrat,  for  the  Reich- 
stag does  not  differ  materially  from  the  lower 
house  of  other  republics.  It  is  elected  by  dis- 
tricts and  the  voters  must  be  25  years  of  age,  but 


66   SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

no  property  qualification  is  demanded.  Bank- 
rupts, incompetents,  paupers  and  those  who  have 
forfeited  their  civil  rights  are  not  permitted  to 
vote,  and  as  a  precaution  against  what  we  term 
in  America  "militarism"  soldiers  in  Germany 
cannot  vote  during  the  period  of  their  active  serv- 
ice. Thus  German  officers  in  service  have  no 
votes  and  they  have  no  power  and  but  little  influ- 
ence outside  of  the  army. 

The  great  secret  of  German  progress  is  to  be 
found  in  the  powers  of  the  Bundesrat,  in  which 
are  united  the  executive,  the  legislative  and  the 
judicial  functions. 

This  is  in  absolute  contradistinction  to  the 
American  system,  and  it  may  seem  surprising  to 
an  American  that  a  republic  can  be  conducted 
under  such  a  form  of  government,  the  American 
conception  being  based  upon  the  distinct  division 
of  these  functions.  The  president  is  the  execu- 
tive, the  congress  the  legislative,  and  the  Supreme 
Court  the  head  of  the  judiciary  in  the  United 
States.  It  is  called  a  government  of  checks  and 
balances  and  this  division  of  functions  was  par- 
ticular!}7 devised  and  elaborated  to  protect  the 
citizen  from  official  usurpation. 

While  this  result  has  been  attained  it  has  been 
attained  at  the  cost  of  division  of  responsibility, 
intolerable  delays  in  legislation,  long  periods  of 
unsettled  interpretation  of  the  laws  before  they 


THE  SECRET  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS      67 

are  finally  passed  upon  by  the  Supreme  Court 
and  the  gradual  accretion  of  the  power  of  the 
president  until  he  is  now  the  most  powerful 
ruler  in  any  country,  with  the  exception  of  per- 
haps the  Czar. 

An  American  Bundesrat  or  council  of  the  na- 
tion, would  consist  of  the  Supreme  Court  en- 
larged to  58  members  by  the  inclusion  of  the 
most  brilliant  and  gifted  of  men  in  all  callings 
throughout  the  country.  It  would  unite  in  itself 
the  functions  of  the  Senate,  the  President  and 
the  Supreme  Court,  and  would  be  limited  by  the 
lower  house  on  the  one  hand  and  have  its  policy 
carried  out  through  the  instrumentality  of  a  Sec- 
retary of  State,  on  the  other,  who  would  have  all 
the  cabinet  members  under  him  as  head  clerks  and 
whose  policy  would  always  have  to  conform  to 
that  of  the  Bundesrat  and  lower  house.  There 
would  be  no  President,  as  we  now  know  the  office, 
but  a  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and  navy 
with  certain  appointive  and  formal  routine  func- 
tions. 

The  reason  why  such  a  form  of  government  is 
so  vastly  superior  to  the  American  system  of 
divided  functions  is  that  the  body  which  makes 
the  laws  puts  them  into  execution  and  passes  upon 
them  judicially. 

The  absurdity  of  laws  being  declared  unconsti- 
tutional does  not  exist  in  Germany,  because  the 


68   SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

Bundesrat  is  the  highest  judicial  authority.  As 
a  rule,  few  and  only  the  most  important  judicial 
cases  come  before  it,  but  it  does  not  upset  laws  as 
do  our  courts  by  declaring  them  unconstitutional. 
Such  an  action  would  be  merely  repealing  the 
law,  and  the  Bundesrat  does  not  pass  laws  merely 
to  repeal  them  again. 

There  is  no  danger  of  a  law  not  being  in  accord 
with  the  German  constitution,  because  the  Bun- 
desrat and  Reichstag  have  the  power  of  altering 
the  constitution  by  majority  vote,  and  any  law 
passed  is  of  as  much  effect  as  any  portion  of  the 
constitution  and  would  have  the  effect  of  repeal- 
ing any  portion  of  the  constitution  with  which  it 
was  not  in  accord. 

In  the  United  States  laws  passed  by  Congress 
are  inferior  to  the  laws  which  are  embodied  in 
the  form  of  the  constitution.  That  is,  we  have 
two  qualities  of  law,  ordinary  law  and  the  super- 
law  of  the  constitution.  And  the  courts  have 
the  power  of  scrutinizing  the  ordinary  laws  and 
determining  whether  they  agree  with  the  super- 
law  or  not.  Thus  the  Supreme  Court  is  the 
final  power  in  the  United  States.  Its  members 
have  life  tenure  of  office  and  are  appointed  by 
various  presidents  from  time  to  time,  and  though 
the  supreme  power  in  the  land,  it  is  removed  at 
the  greatest  possible  distance  from  the  influence 
of  the  will  of  the  people. 


THE  SECRET  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS      69 

It  would  appear,  indeed,  that  the  American 
system,  had  it  been  intended  to  make  the  ascer- 
tainment and  carrying  out  of  the  will  of  the  peo- 
ple as  difficult  and  tedious  a  process  as  possible, 
could  not  have  been  more  successfully  designed. 
The  returning  of  the  members  of  the  lower  house 
from  the  states  as  units  makes  it  impossible  for 
any  important  third  party  to  exist.  There  must 
always  be  only  two  really  contending  political 
parties.  The  will  of  the  people  can  only  be  ex- 
pressed in  the  substitution  in  power  of  one  po- 
litical party  for  the  other.  Now  each  political 
party  represents  certain  things.  The  Democrats 
stand  for  free  trade,  anti-imperialism  and  anti- 
trust conditions,  and  the  Republicans  favor  pro- 
tection, imperialism  and  trusts. 

In  the  last  election  the  Democrats  won,  prin- 
cipally on  the  anti-trust  issue.  The  public  ex- 
pressed its  will  on  that  point.  But  in  doing  so, 
it  committed  itself  to  free  trade  and  to  anti-im- 
perialism for  the  time  being,  because  even  the 
Democrats  themselves  cannot  tell  decisively  to 
what  issue  they  owe  their  power,  and  they  assume 
they  won  on  all  planks  and  attempt  to  carry  them 
all  out. 

Now  it  is  likely  that  the  public  really  prefers 
high  tariff  as  that  has  long  been  the  policy  of  the 
country.  But  it  swallows  low  tariff  temporarily, 
if  such  be  the  case,  in  order  to  smash  the  trusts. 


70    SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

If  it  desires  to  return  to  high  tariff,  it  must  re- 
linquish its  anti-trust  attitude  which  it  probably 
does  not  want  to  do.  Therefore,  under  the 
American  system  it  is  almost  impossible  for  the 
will  of  the  public  to  be  ascertained  on  any  one 
subject.  How  then  can  a  country  effectively 
govern  itself  if  it  cannot  find  out  itself  what  its 
own  will  is  ? 

But  Germany  can  ascertain  almost  instantly 
the  will  of  the  people.  If  the  Reichstag  and  the 
Bundesrat  disagree  on  a  policy,  if  the  Reichstag 
votes  lack  of  confidence  in  the  policy  of  the  Im- 
perial Chancellor,  he  must  resign  or  prevail  upon 
the  Bundesrat  to  dissolve  the  Reichstag,  which 
is  accomplished  by  the  Kaiser  acting  with  the 
sanction  of  the  Bundesrat.  Thus  the  Bundesrat, 
through  its  instruments  the  Kaiser  and  Imperial 
Chancellor  has  the  choice  of  agreeing  with  the 
Reichstag  or  of  dissolving  it. 

If  the  Bundesrat  believes  that  it  expresses  the 
will  of  the  people,  it  dissolves  the  Reichstag.  A 
new  election  must  then  be  held  within  sixty  days 
and  the  Reichstag  reconvened  within  ninety  days. 
The  question  upon  which  it  is  dissolved  becomes 
the  political  issue  upon  which  the  Reichstag  mem- 
bers stand  for  re-election. 

The  will  of  the  people  is  thus  ascertained 
within  a  very  short  space  of  time  and  the  Bun- 
desrat, if  defeated  by  the  return  of  Reichstag 


THE  SECRET  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS      71 

members  opposed  to  its  policy,  changes  its  policies 
and  the  members  who  advocated  the  defeated 
policy  resign  individually  or  lose  their  prestige. 
The  new  Reichstag  and  the  Bundesrat  are  then 
in  accord  and  represent  the  will  of  the  people  on 
the  question  at  issue,  a  condition  which  can  never 
be  achieved  under  the  American  system. 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  power  to  dissolve  is 
not  the  Kaiser's  power  but  the  Bundesrat's  power. 
The  Bundesrat  must  dissolve  the  lower  house  or 
agree  with  it,  otherwise  there  is  a  deadlock,  a 
condition  which  involves  such  censure  of  public 
opinion  as  to  be  unendurable. 

Once  the  will  of  the  people  is  ascertained,  the 
Bundesrat  proves  a  marvelous  instrument  for 
carrying  it  into  execution.  As  stated,  there  is  no 
delay  due  to  questions  of  constitutionality,  de- 
ranging commerce  and  industry  in  the  intolerable 
manner  to  which  American  commerce  and  indus- 
try are  subjected  by  the  infinitely  tedious  proc- 
esses of  the  American  courts  and  the  closely 
technical  attitude  of  the  Supreme  Court  upon  all 
questions  which  are  not  brought  before  it  in  the 
proper  form.  Once  a  law  is  passed  it  is  of  the 
same  quality  as  the  constitution.  No  laws  are 
passed  for  the  purpose  of  "putting  it  up  to  the 
Supreme  Court."  No  laws  are  passed,  the  exe- 
cution of  which  involves  political  blackmail,  that 
is  the  "putting  of  the  president  in  a  hole"  in  carry- 


72   SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

ing  them  out.  No  ambiguous  laws  are  passed  to 
"sidestep"  official  responsibility,  because  as  the 
Bundesrat  must  shoulder  the  responsibility  of 
executing  the  laws  it  passes,  it  cannot  escape 
odium  for  laws  which  do  not  have  public  approval. 
There  can  be  no  ambiguity  in  the  laws,  for  the 
Bundesrat  which  passed  the  law  must  certainly 
know  what  it  means  when  it  comes  to  be  executed. 

Further,  there  are  no  delays  in  passing  laws 
such  as  are  caused  by  deadlocks  between  the 
American  president  and  a  Congress  of  different 
political  complexion,  for  the  Kaiser  cannot  block 
legislation  and  cannot  veto  it. 

In  short,  in  Germany  it  works.  Here  it  does 
not. 

The  inflexibility  of  the  American  system  was 
devised  by  its  founders  under  the  apprehension 
that  they  were  wiser  than  their  successors  were 
to  be.  Therefore,  the  constitution  which  they 
framed  was  made  of  a  higher  quality  than  any 
laws  to  be  passed  by  their  successors,  except  un- 
der almost  impossible  circumstances,  the  agree- 
ment of  the  legislatures  of  two-thirds  of  the  states. 
America  has  ever  since  been  tripping  on  this 
stumbling  block.  It  is  time  it  was  kicked  out  of 
the  way.  Why  should  our  early  statesmen  make 
such  trouble  for  us?  We  are  as  competent  to 
govern  ourselves  as  they  were.  By  denying  to 
our  laws  equal  validity  with  the  ones  they  framed 


THE  SECRET  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS      73 

into  a  constitution,  they  assert  that  we  are  not. 

But  if  our  constitution  were  capable  of  amend- 
ment by  majority  vote  of  Congress,  and  we  suf- 
fered by  such  gusts  of  popular  passion  as  they 
feared  we  would,  we  would  be  the  sufferers  and 
not  they,  but  we  would  have  the  opportunity  of 
righting  our  mistakes  as  easily  as  they  were  made, 
which  is  not  now  the  case. 

The  Bundesrat  system  majr  be  termed  a  polyoc- 
racy,  or  a  government  of  the  many.  Essen- 
tially, it  is  an  aristocracy  on  good  behavior,  an 
aristocracy  holding  its  job  at  the  pleasure  of  a 
democracy.  It  owes  its  effectiveness  to  its  uni- 
fication of  the  three  functions  which  are  separated 
in  the  American  government,  and  to  its  power 
being  as  great  as  the  power  of  any  body  that 
went  before  it. 

The  principle  involved  of  legislative-executive- 
judicial  unity  in  one  body  has  been  adopted  by 
the  American  government  in  the  management  of 
railroads,  in  the  form  of  an  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission.  Here  a  small  body  of  men  make 
rules  affecting  railroads  which  are  really  laws,  en- 
force those  rules  and  hear  appeals  on  the  subject, 
few  of  which  pass  to  a  higher  court.  This  body 
is  a  striking  example  of  the  effectiveness  of  the 
system.  It  accomplishes  more  with  less  effort 
and  greater  dispatch  and  satisfaction  to  all  con- 
cerned than  any  department  of  the  American 


74   SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

government.  It  is  the  Bundesrat  system  ap- 
plied to  railroads  and  here  for  once  in  America, 
it  works. 

Another  momentous  application  of  the  princi- 
ple is  found  in  the  American  cities  which  have 
adopted  the  so-called  commission  system  of  gov- 
ernment. This  system  consists  in  delegating  all 
the  municipal  powers  to  a  board  of  five  commis- 
sioners, who  pass  the  laws,  execute  them  and  pass 
judicially  upon  their  interpretation  to  a  certain 
extent. 

So  effective  has  the  system  proven  that  several 
hundred  of  the  most  progressive  cities  have 
adopted  it  within  a  few  years'  time. 

The  same  principle  is  applied  in  primitive  com- 
munities of  miners,  where  miners'  meeting  acts 
with  full  powers,  and  such  communities  are  well 
governed  until  the  regular  system  of  government 
is  substituted  therefor. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  superior,  and 
vastly  superior  benefits  of  the  system  over  all 
other  forms  of  republican  government.  Other 
nations  must  give  way  to  Germany  until  they 
adopt  some  equally  effective  method  of  ascer- 
taining and  carrying  out  the  will  of  the  people. 

It  is  no  criticism  of  the  principle  to  show  that 
Germany  on  account  of  gerrymandering  and 
the  property  qualifications  of  voters  in  the  king- 
dom of  Prussia  is  not  governed  so  much  by  uni- 


THE  SECRET  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS      75 

versal  suffrage  as  by  property.  Even  though 
one  million  voters  because  of  their  means  and 
particular  location  over-balance  6,000,000  not  so 
well  situated,  the  system  is  not  rendered  ineffec- 
tive. The  will  of  the  million  is  ascertained  and 
carried  into  effect.  The  question  between  the 
one  and  the  six  million  is  one  of  the  qualifications 
necessary  to  enfranchisement.  Were  the  6,000,- 
000  to  gain  complete  enfranchisement  at  a  stroke, 
as  did  the  American  negroes,  the  system  would 
still  be  there  to  ascertain  and  cany  into  effect 
their  will,  whatever  it  might  be. 

And,  incidentally,  taxation  without  represen- 
tation really  demands  property  qualifications. 
Personal  liberties  have  long  ago  been  established. 
Enfranchisement  without  property  qualifications 
is  really  taxation  (for  property  owners)  without 
representation,  for  to  overbalance  the  property 
owners  who  are  the  taxpayers  by  the  votes  of 
those  who  have  nothing  and  to  impose  taxes  on 
them  which  by  no  means  they  could  oppose,  is 
in  truth  taxation  without  representation. 

The  question  of  who  is  to  be  enfranchised, 
however,  is  a  different  question  from  the  question 
of  the  form  of  government  and  quite  aside  from 
it.     It  is  a  matter  of  purely  conflicting  interest. 

The  German  system,  however,  does  not  end 
with  promptly  ascertaining  the  will  of  the  people. 
It  has  a  particularly  efficient  system  of  carrying 


76   SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

it  into  effect,  termed  collectively,  the  bureaucracy. 

The  Kaiser  through  the  Imperial  Chancellor 
has  the  appointment  of  all  public  officials  of  the 
empire.  As  King  of  Prussia  he  appoints  all 
Prussian  administrative  officials.  Other  kings 
similarly  appoint  the  administrative  officers  of 
their  kingdoms.  Thus,  a  vast  body  of  officials 
exists,  who  hold  for  life  or  during  good  behavior, 
who  must  be  competent,  who  have  every  incentive 
to  good  public  service  because  their  life  jobs  de- 
pend upon  it  and  because  they  command  and 
receive  the  respect  of  the  public  for  honorable 
service,  and  who  are  instantly  responsive  to  the 
Kaiser  and  the  Bundesrat  for  their  actions. 
They  are  protected  from  interference  in  the  exe- 
cution of  their  duties  by  special  courts  and  they 
are,  so  to  speak,  the  fingers  of  the  king,  which 
must  be  clean  and  which  must,  in  the  case  of  a 
constitutional  monarch  as  in  Germany,  carry  out 
the  will  of  the  king  which  is  the  will  of  the  people, 
as  constitutional  monarchs  in  modern  times  are 
merely  hereditary  presidents. 

With  this  remarkable  and  efficient  means  of 
carrying  out  its  will,  the  power  of  the  Bundesrat 
for  national  good  can  be  appreciated. 

How  different  is  the  condition  in  the  United 
States  where  even  after  the  will  of  the  people  is 
ascertained,  there  exists  a  large  body  of  untrained 
officials,  expecting,  especially  locally,  to  hold  of- 


THE  SECRET  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS      77 

fice  for  only  a  few  years,  during  which  time  they 
"must  get  theirs  while  the  getting  is  good,"  as 
the  only  means  of  carrying  it  out. 

Can  there  be  any  wonder  at  the  dissatisfaction 
and  unrest  of  the  public  when  their  cherished  sys- 
tem is  the  real  cause  of  their  chief  troubles.  Lib- 
erty, equality  and  fraternity  are  only  empty 
phrases  unless  those  who  would  destroy  them  can 
be  brought  within  the  effective  displeasure  of  the 
state.  And  this  cannot  be  done  under  modern 
conditions  in  America. 


CHAPTER  VI 

RESPONSIBILITY   OF  THE   PRESS 

WE,  the  public,  hear  much  about  the  lib- 
erty of  the  press — from  the  press.  The 
sacredness  of  the  freedom  of  the  press 
is  much  dinned  into  our  ears — by  the  press. 

But  we  hear  little  of  the  responsibility  of  the 
press — from  the  press.  We  hear  little  condem- 
nation of  the  defamatory  and  destructive  mis- 
representation practiced  by  the  press,  little  criti- 
cism of  false  reports,  flaunted  ignorance,  news 
discolored  by  interest,  canards,  it-is-alleged,  and 
the  like — from  the  press. 

Every  newspaper  has  an  axe  to  grind ;  at  least 
one,  sometimes  many.  And  the  public  must  do 
the  turning  of  the  grindstone. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  what  is  the  press? 

Whoever  has  the  price  of  type  and  presses  may 
issue  a  sheet  of  alleged  information  and  sell  it  to 
the  public,  and  it  may  contain  anything  which 
his  self-interest  dictates.  If  he  takes  the  pre- 
caution not  to  actually  libel  any  individual,  he 
escapes  all  responsibility  and  the  only  control 
which  is  exercised  over  his  operations  is  that  ex- 
ercised by  his  readers,  who,  if  they  like  not  his 

78 


RESPONSIBILITY  OF  THE  PRESS         79 

"news"  or  the  opinions  he  expresses  may  discon- 
tinue the  purchase  of  his  paper. 

Otherwise  he  may  print  what  he  will,  he  may 
misrepresent  facts  wilfully  or  carelessly,  he  may 
distort  and  exaggerate,  he  may  suppress,  he  may 
publish  canards  and  inventions,  he  may  pour 
out  an  unending  stream  of  falsehood  and  de- 
ceptions, he  may  discolor  the  truth,  play  upon 
prejudice  and  poison  in  any  way  he  sees  fit  the 
stream  of  public  opinion. 

All  this  he  may  do  in  the  name  of  freedom  of 
the  press  and  none  may  stop  him. 

It  may  be  well  inquired  by  what  virtue  does 
such  sacredness  inhere  in  the  ownership  of  type 
and  printing  presses  ?  What  sets  apart  the  news- 
paper owner  from  the  rest  of  mankind  and  per- 
mits him  unbridled  license? 

Such  grotesque  perversions  of  liberty  must 
finally  undermine  the  whole  structure  of  liberty, 
for  when  liberty  is  so  much  abused,  when  liberty 
ceases  to  mean  not  the  safeguarding  of  proper 
rights,  but  the  permission,  the  license  to  assail  the 
helpless  and  pervert  the  public  mind,  an  over- 
drastic  regulation  will  be  demanded  which  will 
in  turn  be  subversive  of  liberty.  Thus  one  ex- 
treme breeds  another  and  the  policy  of  absolute 
and  unrestricted  freedom  to  whoever  puts  type 
to  paper  will  bring  the  extreme  of  regulation 
when  the  reaction  sets  in. 


80   SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

Regulation  of  the  press,  however,  is  an  obnox- 
ious procedure  when  those  who  have  the  power 
to  regulate  are  perfectly  free  to  exercise  whatever 
regulation  they  see  fit.  Here  again  liberty  be- 
comes license,  and  the  press  suffers  and  with  it 
those  who  are  entitled  to  know  the  truth  about 
events  of  concern  to  themselves  as  members  of 
the  social  body,  for  suppression  is  equally  as  dan- 
gerous as  exaggeration,  both  being  forms  of  ir- 
responsibility. 

It  is  a  dangerous  condition  when  one  man  must 
decide  what  another  man  is  to  read  or  not  to  read 
and  to  any  such  censorship,  newspapers  object 
with  the  utmost  violence.  Yet  their  editors  decide 
every  day  what  their  readers  are  to  read  or  not  to 
read  and  consider  themselves  as  acting  within 
their  proper  powers.  The  censor  is  merely  the 
editor  of  the  editors,  vested  with  powers  of  exactly 
the  same  sort  as  those  possessed  by  the  editor. 
The  censor  is  bound  to  come  in  some  form  or  other 
if  the  editors  do  not  respect  the  freedom  which  has 
been  given  them. 

President  Roosevelt  made  a  most  determined 
effort  to  muzzle  the  press  but  that  muzzling 
would  have  been  as  dangerous  as  the  abuse  of  its 
present  freedom  by  the  press,  since  it  would  have 
been  of  an  arbitrary  and  an  equally  irresponsible 
kind. 

The  public  does  not  realize  the  enormous  power 


RESPONSIBILITY  OF  THE  PRESS         81 

of  the  press  to  misguide  public  opinion  when  it 
determines  to  do  so.  The  average  reader  im- 
agines that  public  opinion,  as  far  as  it  is  formed 
by  newspapers,  is  formed  by  the  editorial  columns 
of  the  papers. 

This  is  an  entirely  inadequate  view.  The  edi- 
torials of  a  newspaper,  in  fact,  have  very  little 
force  in  moulding  public  opinion,  for  the  reason 
that  readers  in  general  only  read  editorials  which 
are  in  accord  with  their  own  existing  views. 
When  editorials  controvert  the  convictions  of  the 
reader,  the  reader  ceases  to  read  them  and  buys  a 
paper  which  reflects  in  its  editorials  his  own  opin- 
ions. 

It  is  in  its  news  columns  that  the  newspaper  has 
its  greatest  power  over  public  opinion.  If  it 
publishes  as  a  fact,  for  example,  the  "news"  that 
German  soldiers  are  guilty  of  outrages,  public 
opinion  takes  an  anti-German  tinge  far  more 
quickly  than  that  from  any  number  of  anti-Ger- 
man editorials.  The  fact  that  no  such  outrages 
have  in  reality  occurred,  is  unknown  to  the  read- 
ers. Their  "public  opinion"  is  consequently 
based  upon  the  falsehood  circulated  as  a  truth. 
A  continued  policy  of  misrepresentation  results 
in  the  formation  of  a  more  or  less  violently 
marked  "public  opinion"  which  is  a  great  force 
for  evil  since  it  is  acting  upon  false  premises. 
The  public  thus  acts  contrary  to  reason  and  truth 


82    SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

and  to  its  own  ultimate  disadvantage,  side-tracked 
by  editorial  self-interest. 

It  is  not  only,  however,  in  actual  falsehoods 
that  newspapers  pollute  public  opinion,  but  in 
importance  and  tone  given  to  the  published  mat- 
ter. 

This  is  accomplished  by  means  of  headlines  of 
a  sensational  and  misleading  character,  by  the 
use  of  different  sizes  of  type,  and  in  the  relative 
prominence  and  location  on  the  pages  of  the 
paper  of  the  various  items. 

The  manipulation  of  these  devices,  though  un- 
conscionable enough  before  the  war,  has  become 
so  flagrant  since  that  even  the  editors  themselves 
appear  to  sicken  of  it.  The  public,  nevertheless, 
having  its  avenues  to  the  truth  largely  closed, 
cherishes  its  views  founded  on  falsehood  and  lives 
in  its  little  newspaperly  created  fool's  paradise 
of  misinformation. 

A  few  examples  of  the  "news"  and  lack  of  news 
that  is  being  given  to  the  public  of  this  country 
through  the  press  which  regards  its  own  freedom 
with  such  awe,  will  serve  to  demonstrate  how  lit- 
tle respect  the  press  has  for  truth  and  how  ready 
it  is  to  deceive  its  own  readers.  The  publishing  of 
misinformation  does  not  stop  at  news  alone,  but 
also  includes  the  publication  of  fake  photographs 
as  will  be  noted. 

Lurid  misrepresentation  of  a  sensational  char- 


RESPONSIBILITY  OF  THE  PRESS         83 

acter  makes  particularly  welcome  matter  to  cer- 
tain newspapers.  An  example  of  this  was  seen 
in  "The  Kissing  of  the  Sword."  Under  this 
headline  it  was  stated  that  high-voiced  women  of 
title  were  chattering  over  their  tea  cups  in  the 
smartest  hotel  in  Munich  when  into  their  midst 
swaggered  the  Crown  Prince  Rupprect  of  Ba- 
varia, with  his  sabre  newly  sharpened  and  his 
abdomen  girt  for  war.  His  wife  is  represented 
as  running  to  him,  kissing  his  sabre  and  shouting, 
"Bring  it  back  to  me  covered  with  blood — that  I 
may  kiss  it  again."  And  other  high-voiced 
women  flocked  to  kiss  the  sword. 

This  dime  novelism  only  needs  to  be  mentioned 
to  have  its  absurdity  made  evident.  The  idea  of 
a  crown  princess  of  Bavaria  meeting  her  husband 
in  a  hotel  is  ridiculous  to  begin  with.  For  her 
to  kiss  his  sword  in  public  is  a  performance  im- 
possible outside  of  a  moving  picture  and  the 
"news"  columns  of  the  press,  and  by  its  obvious 
improbability  the  story  confounds  itself. 

Yet  the  public  in  its  haste  does  not  stop 
to  criticise  such  matter.  Doubtless  millions  of 
Americans  still  allow  themselves  to  believe  that 
this  luridly  described  affair  really  took  place. 

Its  absolute  falsity  is  demonstrated  when  the 
fact  is  recalled  that  the  wife  of  Crown  Prince 
Rupprect  died  in  October,  1912.  Vance  Thomp- 
son was  the  "noted  writer"  from  whose  fertile 


84,    SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

brain  this  atrocity  of  "news"  eminated.  How 
much  credence  is  to  be  placed  in  his  work  after 
such  a  performance  ?  No  doubt,  however,  he  will 
continue  to  favor  the  public  with  sundry  sensa- 
tional fabrications  as  long  as  the  present  editorial 
policy  of  the  papers  publishing  his  material  con- 
tinues. 

This  writer,  in  order  to  show  that  Germany 
had  been  preparing  for  the  war  for  a  long  time, 
asserted  that  the  Alsatian  conscripts  had  been 
retained  when  their  term  of  service  expired  in 
May.  The  truth  is  that  no  German  soldier  is 
ever  discharged  until  late  in  the  fall  after  camp 
service  and  maneuvers  have  given  his  military  ed- 
ucation the  final  polish. 

Lies  of  this  kind,  whether  deliberate  or  based 
upon  complete  ignorance  of  conditions,  prepare 
the  mind  of  the  public  for  the  more  sinister  sug- 
gestions of  another  class  of  writers  who  deliber- 
ately attempt  to  create  bad  feeling  and  to  pro- 
voke hostile  activities  between  friendly  nations. 
For  example,  the  following  appeared  in  an  even- 
ing paper  not  long  since : 

"The  American  relations  of  Count  von  Bern- 
storfY  are  watched  with  the  closest  attention.  It 
is  believed  that  the  Germans  will  seek  an  excuse 
for  friction  on  the  slightest  provocation." 

A  large  headline  said:  "Declare  Germany  is 
ready  to  quarrel  with  the  United  States." 


RESPONSIBILITY  OF  THE  PRESS         85 

Upon  what  authority  did  the  editor  act  in  cir- 
culating such  an  obviously  trouble  breeding  as- 
sertion? Obviously  none,  when  the  circum- 
stances are  considered.  Yet  the  reader  does  not 
stop  to  question  the  truth  or  falsity  of  the  state- 
ment. It  is  assimilated  without  scrutiny  and 
helps  further  to  form  "public  opinion." 

Perhaps  the  most  glaring  suppression  of  in- 
formation ever  practiced  by  American  newspa- 
pers was  in  the  case  of  the  battle  between  the  Ger- 
mans and  Russians  near  Tannenberg — Ortels- 
burg — Gilgenberg.  Only  an  inkling  of  the  ex- 
tent of  this  conflict  reached  the  public.  Through 
German  sources  finally  the  news  percolated  that 
93,000  prisoners  had  been  taken.  Finally,  it  be- 
came known  that  the  dead  alone  totaled  150,000. 
At  length  one  New  York  newspaper  printed  an 
account  of  an  eye  witness  of  the  battle : 

"The  Russian  position  was  practically  this. 
On  the  outside  the  land  sloped  up  toward  the 
surrounding  enemy ;  on  the  inside  was  a  network 
of  swamps  and  lakes;  on  the  fourth  side  escape 
was  possible  only  through  swamps  and  boggy 
streams.  Then  followed  one  of  the  most  fright- 
ful battles  of  history,  a  battle  which  caused  some 
of  the  German  officers  to  go  mad  from  its  very 
horrors.  The  Germans  closed  in,  concentrating 
a  terrible  fire  on  the  Russians,  who  were  unable 
to  maneuver  their  guns  which  sank  in  the  mud. 


86   SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

Horses  and  men  became  embogged.  The  nature 
of  the  region  caused  the  Russians  to  break  up 
into  helpless  groups,  many  of  which  forced  their 
way  further  and  further  into  the  awful  swamps." 

The  Sun  was  the  only  paper  to  print  this  de- 
scription and  the  readers  of  the  other  papers  re- 
mained in  ignorance  of  one  of  the  most  terrible 
scenes  of  warfare  in  human  history  and  a  Russian 
disaster  of  unparalleled  magnitude. 

It  may  be  imagined  what  kind  of  public  opinion 
is  formed  when  the  truth  is  thus  suppressed. 

"War  pictures"  are  published  of  the  most 
ridiculous  nature.  One  showed  "the  King  of 
Belgium  in  conference  with  his  General  Staff." 
The  picture  was  one  in  reality  of  the  King  of 
Belgium  in  times  of  peace  as  the  guest  of  honor 
at  a  reception  given  by  German  officers  wearing, 
as  the  picture  showed,  the  Prussian  uniform.  A 
decorative  feature  of  the  building  was  a  German 
eagle  over  the  doorway. 

Numerous  pictures  are  published  of  Germans 
entrenched  firing  at  the  "enemy"  about  to  charge. 
These  pictures  are  usually  photographs  of  peace 
maneuvers,  as  may  be  seen  from  the  equipment, 
which  has  not  been  used  in  the  German  army  for 
a  number  of  years.  Further,  the  helmet  spikes 
are  shown  glistening  in  all  their  splendor.  In 
times  of  war  the  German  soldier  pulls  a  cloth 
covering  over  his  helmet  so  that  no  reflection  will 
make  his  presence  known  to  the  enemy. 


RESPONSIBILITY  OF  THE  PRESS         87 

"Turkish"  lancers  are  shown  leaving  Constan- 
tinople for  the  front,  immediately  following  Tur- 
key's declaration  of  war.  These  "Turkish"  sol- 
diers carry  the  maltese  cross,  and  are  in  reality 
Roumanian  soldiers  probably  returning  from  a 
maneuver. 

A  torpedo  room  of  a  submarine  is  illustrated 
which  is  in  reality  a  torpedo  chamber  of  a  bat- 
tleship. 

A  particularly  sardonic  example  of  journalistic 
insult  to  public  intelligence  was  the  publication 
of  a  picture  showing  English  soldiers  under  which 
were  captions  to  the  effect  that  "Here  are  the 
great  English  soldiers  who  continuously  defeat 
the  German  army."  The  German  edition  of  the 
same  paper  on  the  same  day  used  the  same  illus- 
tration with  captions  to  the  effect  that  "These  are 
the  brave  English  soldiers  who,  due  to  their 
longer  legs,  are  continuously  running  away  from 
the  Germans  at  top  speed." 

The  formation  of  public  opinion  in  the  United 
States  as  well  as  throughout  the  rest  of  the 
world  by  means  of  inventions  disseminated  by  the 
British  government  through  the  English  press 
and  news  agencies  with  their  cable  system  is  well 
understood  by  thinking  people  in  this  country,  to 
whom  such  underhanded  methods  are  naturally 
repellent. 

But  unhappily  the  press  of  the  United  States 


88   SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

is  dominated  by  English  influence  and  the  papers 
that  dealt  fairly  with  Germany  before  the  war, 
during  the  war  reek  with  abuse  of  that  great  na- 
tion. This  is  the  more  unaccountable  because 
Great  Britain  has  for  years  throughout  the 
world  systematically  persisted  in  a  publicity  cam- 
paign particularly  in  South  America,  against 
everything  American. 

On  January  7, 1913,  testifying  before  the  Com- 
mittee on  the  Merchant  Marine  and  Fisheries,  of 
the  House  of  Representatives,  Mr.  Sidney  Story, 
of  the  Pan  American  Steamship  Company,  de- 
clared : 

"We  find  that  our  commercial  rivals,  the  Eng- 
lish, are  very  aggressive  in  carrying  on  a  propa- 
ganda throughout  the  press.  There  is  not  a  day 
but  what  you  take  up  the  newspapers  of  those 
countries  and  you  will  find  a  whole  column  de- 
voted  to  Switzerland,  or  Holland,  or  Belgium, 
two  columns  to  France,  Italy,  and  England  and 
to  the  United  States  possibly  two  or  three  small 
lines.  Or  if  it  is  a  paragraph  or  two  it  refers  to 
some  objectionable  items  like  divorce  cases  in  Ne- 
vada or  lynchings — items  of  that  character. 

"The  cable  service  is  in  the  hands  of  the  Eng- 
lish, and  the  news  service  is  in  the  hands  of  the 
English,  and  all  the  news  from  North  America  to 
South  America  is  first  censored  in  England  be- 
fore it  reaches  South  America,  and  vice  versa, 


RESPONSIBILITY  OF  THE  PRESS         89 

the  object  being  to  keep  the  two  sections  of  the 
western  hemisphere  as  much  apart  as  possible. 
We  are  pictured  to  the  South  Americans  as 
northern  barbarians,  to  keep  them  away  from  us, 
and  South  Americans  are  pictured  here  to  us  as 
a  lot  of  revolutionists,  so  as  to  keep  our  people 
from  investing  in  that  country." 

George  Moore  in  the  San  Francisco  Examiner 
writes : 

"Europe  knows  America  and  we  misunder- 
stand Europe  through  news  bearing  the  London 
date.  Negro  burning,  the  Camorra,  bull  fights, 
the  Dreyfus  case,  Russian  Jew  slaughters,  pass 
to  and  fro  as  'news'  through  London. 

"Since  the  establishment  of  the  Triple  Entente 
London  remade  the  French  character  for  the 
world.  On  the  date  of  the  Entente's  beginning, 
the  myth  of  French  decadence  became  the  miracle 
of  French  renaissance.  From  the  same  moment 
the  'bear  that  walks  like  a  man'  was  transformed 
by  Dr.  Dillon  and  a  host  of  lesser  English  into 
a  simple  Christian  hero. 

"Every  one  remembers  the  English-told  story 
of  the  Japanese-Russian  war,  that  story  drove  us 
mad  with  admiration  for  the  Japanese,  England's 
allies;  that  made  us  forget  the  great  unselfish 
friendship  of  Russia  in  the  time  of  our  own  great 
war.  From  London  the  news  poured  into  our 
newspapers,  always  for  Japan  till  we  served  as 


90   SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

England's  tool  to  help  humiliate  Russia  by  a  dis- 
astrous peace  and  hated  the  Japanese  since  the 
next  day  after  the  treaty  was  signed." 

During  the  Russo-Japanese  war  the  British 
system  of  press  misinformation  "fed  up"  the 
newspapers  of  the  United  States  pro-Japanese 
matter.  We  were  consequently  admiring  our 
"little  brown  brothers,"  an  admiration  which  has 
sensibly  cooled  since  the  truth  of  the  relation  of 
the  United  States  and  the  Japanese  had  dawned 
upon  the  public. 

Now  that  Russia  is  an  ally  of  England,  Dr. 
Eliot  is  trying  to  have  us  believe  that  in  the  brief 
time  since  the  massacres  of  Kishinef,  Russian 
civilization  has  been  so  greatly  improved  that 
Russia  may  to-day  be  considered  the  torch  bearer 
of  enlightenment. 

Early  in  the  present  war  this  country  was 
flooded  with  reports  of  mistreatment  alleged  to 
have  been  suffered  by  Americans  in  Germany. 
When  the  truth  came  through,  these  reports  were 
completely  discredited.  Together  with  the  re- 
ports of  alleged  atrocities  in  Belgium  it  is  now 
realized  by  the  American  public  that  they  were 
direct  lies. 

Irvin  S.  Cobb  writes  in  the  Saturday  Evening 
Post:  "Some  time  back,  I  wrote  in  an  article 
of  the  Saturday  Evening  Post  that  I  had  been 
able  to  find  in  Belgium,  no  direct  proof  of  the 


RESPONSIBILITY  OF  THE  PRESS         91 

mutilation,  the  torturing  and  other  barbarities 
which  were  charged  against  the  Germans  by  the 
Belgians,  though  fully  a  dozen  journalists  both 
English  and  American  have  agreed  with  me,  say- 
ing that  their  experience  in  this  regard  has  been 
the  same  as  mine." 

The  enormous  effect  on  public  opinion  of  such 
lies  cannot  be  estimated.  The  misrepresentation 
is  furthered  by  the  dishonesty  of  our  daily  press, 
the  greater  part  of  which  publishes  all  the  lies 
which  emanate  from  London,  and  even  goes  so 
far  as  to  discant  in  lengthy  editorials  upon  the 
"news"  toj}ics  so  published.  For  the  most  part 
this  is  an  exhibition  of  stupidity,  as  most  of  the 
editors  swallow  what  comes  through  the  cables 
without  investigation,  as  long  as  it  is  sensational 
enough. 

When,  however,  the  truth  transpires,  such  news 
if  printed  at  all  is  given  some  obscure  position  on 
an  inside  page  in  small  type,  while  the  original 
report  of  which  it  is  the  correction  appeared  un- 
der bold  headlines  on  the  front  page.  The  edi- 
tors credit  the  public  thus  with  a  lack  of  intelli- 
gence by  no  means  complimentary,  indeed,  they 
place  the  public  on  a  plane  of  stupidity  even  be- 
neath their  own. 

Such  reports  and  inspired  editorials,  however, 
cannot  be  of  but  temporary  injury  to  Germans 
and  German- Americans  who  are  inferentially  in- 


92   SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

eluded  in  the  besmirching  process.  Eventually, 
the  papers  which  circulate  such  matter  will  be 
discredited.  The  reputation  of  the  British  na- 
tion, so  long  known  to  history  as  "Perfidious  Al- 
bion," will  attach  to  it  sycophants  in  this  country, 
and  the  newspapers  which  report  and  often  de- 
liberately amplify  and  elaborate  upon  the  false 
information  supplied  will  come  to  be  known,  if 
they  are  not  already  known,  as  the  subsidized  or- 
gans of  the  British  government. 

During  the  twelve  years  of  my  residence  in  this 
country,  I  have  noticed  and  have  often  heard  it 
remarked  upon  by  my  fellow  German- Americans, 
like  myself  naturalized  citizens  of  this  country  and 
certainly  having  the  interests  of  America  as  much 
at  heart  as  the  hostile  press  of  London,  that  most 
Americans,  particularly  those  of  Anglo-Saxon 
descent,  not  only  do  not  care  to  know  the  truth 
about  German  affairs,  but  usually  dislike  if  they 
do  not  positively  refuse  to  be  convinced  of  Ger- 
many's progress.  It  seems  to  me  that  this  is  due 
to  the  fact  that  the  tremendous  influence  of  the 
British  press  and  its  connections  sets  up  anti- 
German  prejudices.  I  am  convinced  that  but  for 
this  baleful  influence  the  true  extent  of  Ger- 
many's power,  both  intellectual  and  physical, 
would  have  been  known  and  appreciated,  and 
that  if  it  had  been,  a  restraining  influence  would 
have  been  exerted  by  this  country,  which  would 


RESPONSIBILITY  OF  THE  PRESS         93 

have  caused  the  Allies  to  hesitate  and  which  might 
even  have  prevented  the  war.  England,  self-cen- 
tered and  selfish,  has  refused  to  recognize  the  pro- 
gressiveness  and  accomplishments  of  Germany, 
and  the  press  of  the  United  States,  as  well  as  of 
other  countries,  has  underestimated  Germany  in 
every  way  and  has  consequently  been  in  a  false 
position  before  its  readers  which  it  still  seeks  to 
justify  by  fanning  anti-German  prejudice.  At 
the  crisis,  Germany  was  not  understood  and  only 
now  is  the  press  awakening  to  the  true  state  of 
conditions  and  realizing  the  error  of  trusting  so 
blindly  a  country  so  cynical  and  destructive  as 
England. 

The  American  newspaper  holds  the  public  in 
contempt.  It  is  without  fear,  except  of  the  ad- 
vertiser, but  full  of  favor,  to  various  influences. 

For  this  the  public  is  in  a  measure  to  blame. 
In  Germany  false  statements  soon  discredit  a 
paper,  the  public  withdrawing  their  support. 
Here  the  public  "stand  for  it,"  probably  because 
it  finds  no  models  to  turn  to  of  what  a  newspaper 
should  in  reality  be. 

The  freedom  of  the  press  in  the  United  States 
is  a  growing  menace  to  the  freedom  of  the  mind  of 
the  public.  The  news  of  the  war  has  been  a  strik- 
ing proof  of  the  irresponsibility  of  the  press. 

The  German  press  is  regarded  in  a  somewhat 
different  light.     Unlimited  license  is  not  allowed 


94   SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

it.  If  it  gets  out  of  bounds,  the  government  may 
order  one  or  more  issues  suppressed,  or  suppres- 
sion for  a  longer  time.  If  the  paper  objects,  it 
may  appeal  to  the  courts. 

The  public  is  thus  protected  by  prompt  exec- 
utive action  and  the  paper  by  prompt  recourse  to 
legal  measures  if  it  feels  itself  aggrieved. 

As  a  result  there  is  more  real  freedom  of  the 
press  in  Germany  than  in  this  country  and  vastly 
more  freedom  from  the  press,  and  from  the  de- 
structive license  and  pollution  of  public  opinion 
to  which  the  readers  of  American  newspapers  are 
subjected. 


CHAPTER  VII 

NON-POLITICAL    CITY    ADMINISTRATION 

EVEN  the  warmest  defenders  of  the  Ameri- 
can system  of  constitutional  government, 
the  systems  boasted  so  much  of  as  a  system 
of  checks  and  balances,  but  which  is  really  a  sys- 
tem that  checks  and  unbalances  commerce  and  in- 
dustry, admit  that  it  breaks  down  when  it  comes 
to  the  government  of  the  municipality. 

So  great  and  notorious  are  the  scandals  con- 
nected with  American  municipal  government  that 
public  spirited  citizens  despair  of  any  substantial 
betterment  and  seek  to  lay  the  blame  on  the  men 
of  wealth  who,  having  large  concessions  and  fran- 
chises to  gain,  corrupt  the  city  governments,  and 
conclude  that  human  nature  is  not  strong  enough 
to  resist  the  temptations  involved. 

The  trouble,  however,  is  not  with  human  na- 
ture, but  with  the  system,  against  which  the  most 
beatific  nature  could  scarcely  prevail. 

The  German  city  government  system  succeeds 
where  the  American  system  fails,  and  yet  the 
German  cities  have  just  as  great  prizes  at  stake 
for  contractors  and  franchise  seekers.     The  rea- 

95 


96   SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

son  lies  in  the  difference  in  system,  and  the  Ger- 
man system  is  successful  because  it  is  modeled, 
in  effect,  after  the  system  which  has  made  the 
Bundesrat  so  successful  in  dealing  with  national 
and  international  problems,  in  what  may  be 
termed  the  polycratic  system,  the  government  by 
many  through  a  centralized  and  unified  body  ex- 
ercising all  the  necessary  powers  and  not  split  up 
into  executive,  judicial  and  legislative  functions 
as  in  America. 

Under  another  guise,  many  American  cities 
have  adopted  the  principle,  calling  it  the  "com- 
mission form  of  government"  and  it  is  proving  al- 
most as  effective  in  America  as  it  does  in  Ger- 
many, although  the  method  by  which  it  is  carried 
out  here  is  not  as  effectual  as  in  Germany. 

The  importance  of  proper  city  government  is 
one  of  the  most  vital  political  considerations  of 
the  present  time,  for  this  is  an  age  of  city  growth 
at  the  expense  of  the  rural  districts.  There  are 
now  35,000,000  more  people  living  in  American 
cities,  out  of  a  population  of  100,000,000,  than 
there  would  be  had  the  ratio  of  city  to  rural  dwel- 
lers of  a  generation  or  so  ago  still  held  good. 

This  rapid  change  has  been  caused  by  labor  sav- 
ing inventions.  The  greater  the  amount  of  labor 
saved  by  mechanical  appliances,  the  fewer  the 
number  of  people  held  to  the  bondage  of  agricul- 
tural employments.     In  addition,  rapid  transit  in 


Municipal  Electric  Central  Station  "Oberspree, "  Berlin. 

The  highly  efficient  municipal  undertakings  throughout  Ger- 
many impelled  Berlin  to  acquire,  early  in  1915,  the  city's  entire 
electric  supply  system,  for  which  the'  sum  of  130,000,000  marks 
was  paid. 


NON-POLITICAL  ADMINISTRATION        97 

cities  has  enabled  populations  to  live  with  less  cost 
in  the  cities  than  if  no  such  transport  existed. 
This  tremendous  growth  in  cities  makes  it  of  the 
greatest  importance  that  the  cities  should  be  prop- 
erly governed.  The  problem  is  only  second  in 
importance,  if  really  second,  to  that  of  national 
government,  for  the  citizen  is  more  frequently  in 
contact  with  the  results  of  municipal  operations 
and  more  vitally  affected  in  health  and  comfort 
by  civic  than  by  national  policies. 

A  review  of  the  methods  by  which  German 
cities  govern  themselves  in  the  highly  efficient 
manner  which  they  have  perfected,  entirely  free 
from  political  considerations,  cannot  fail  to  be  of 
the  greatest  interest  and  importance  to  American 
civic  administrators,  and  to  the  public  as  well. 

To  the  American,  the  most  striking  feature 
about  the  German  city  is  the  extreme  importance 
and  dignity  of  the  German  mayor.  He  usually 
serves  for  a  term  of  twelve  years  and  may  be 
appointed  thereafter  for  life.  In  the  large  Prus- 
sian cities  his  selection  is  subject  to  the  approval 
of  the  King  of  Prussia  (The  German  Kaiser) 
and  he  is  customarily  made  a  member  of  the 
House  of  Lords  (Herrenhaus)  of  the  Kingdom 
of  Prussia.  He  receives  a  salary  of  from  $5,000 
to  $10,000  a  year,  which  is  in  Germany  equivalent 
to  about  twice  that  figure  here  and  in  addition 
he  has  an  official  residence  and  other  perquisites. 


98   SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

When  he  becomes  mayor  he  has  reached  the 
highest  point  to  which  a  man  of  his  talents  usually 
aspires,  although  if  he  has  extraordinary  ability 
he  may,  and  often  does,  become  a  minister  of 
state. 

The  American  president  never  thinks  of  look- 
ing to  the  mayoralty  of  American  cities  for  cabi- 
net ministers.  In  Prussia  that  is  a  favorite  field 
from  which  to  select  ministers,  not  only  of  the 
Kingdom  of  Prussia,  but  often  of  the  Empire  it- 
self. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  office  of  mayor  in 
Germany  is  a  vastly  different  one  from  that  of 
the  American  mayor,  who  is  elected  for  a  term  of 
usually  not  more  than  two  years  and  who  is  or- 
dinarily a  creature  of  the  political  boss,  with  no 
political  future,  but  a  meagre  emolument,  and  of 
the  type  obsessed  with  the  idea  that  the  practical 
thing  to  do  is  "to  get  it  while  the  getting  is  good." 

If  there  were  no  other  difference  between  the 
American  and  German  systems,  the  difference  in 
mayors  would  almost  alone  account  for  the  supe- 
riority of  the  German  method. 

Not  only  in  power  and  dignity  and  prospects 
of  preferment  is  the  German  mayor  superior,  but 
he  is  selected  not  for  his  complaisance  but  for  his 
eminent  administrative  qualities.  There  is  a  pro- 
fession of  public  service  in  Germany,  with  courses 
at  various  universities  where  the  aspirant  may 


NON-POLITICAL  ADMINISTRATION        99 

learn  the  full  technique  of  his  profession  of  civic 
administration.  Upon  graduating  he  enters  the 
service  of  some  smaller  city,  as  a  mayor,  assist- 
ant mayor  or  in  some  other  capacity,  and  as  he 
develops  talent  he  is  called  from  one  city  to  an- 
other until  he  finally  becomes  mayor  of  some  great 
city,  j  ust  as  a  man  of  great  administrative  talent 
in  the  United  States  works  his  way  up  first  on  one 
railway  system  and  then  another  from  a  minor 
position  to  that  of  president  of  the  road. 

German  cities  feel  that  they  should  be  as  well 
served  in  the  office  of  mayor  as  American  rail- 
roads feel  in  regard  to  their  chief  executive  posi- 
tion. And  German  cities  are  just  as  success- 
fully operated  as  American  railroads,  if  not  more 
so. 

The  idea  of  selecting  a  mayor  from  another 
city  because  of  his  ability  is  a  proceeding  that 
would  shock  the  average  American  voter.  The 
idea  of  a  mayor  as  a  patriotic  native  of  the  city 
is  one  that  has  been  promoted  by  political  organi- 
zations from  time  immemorial.  But  German 
cities  find  that  theirs  is  the  best  plan.  They  not 
only  obtain  mayors  from  other  cities,  but  if  they 
are  in  particular  need  of  a  mayor,  do  not  hesitate 
to  advertise  for  one,  and  advertisements  of  cities 
wanting  mayors  are  frequently  seen  in  the  Ger- 
man press. 

The  German  municipal  system  frees  itself  from 


100      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

political  control,  however,  not  in  the  method  of 
selecting  the  mayor  but  at  the  very  outset  in  the 
manner  of  enfranchising  the  voters.  Although 
there  is  a  wide  variety  of  practice  in  the  various 
cities,  the  greater  custom  is  to  restrict  suffrage 
to  tax  payers  of  25  years  or  over,  and  to  adopt 
the  three-class  system  of  voting  described  pre- 
viously in  which  the  payers  of  one-third  of  the 
taxes  are  entitled  to  one-third  of  the  voting  power, 
the  payers  of  the  second  third  of  the  taxes  an- 
other third  of  the  voting  power  and  the  payers 
of  the  last  third  of  the  taxes,  the  remaining  third 
of  the  voting  power.  The  result  is  that  a  wealthy 
individual  in  the  first  class  in  Berlin  will  have 
thirty  times  the  voting  power  of  a  citizen  in  the 
second  class  and  400  times  the  voting  power  of 
a  citizen  in  the  third  class. 

In  Hamiover,  for  example,  60,000  pay  taxes 
out  of  a  population  of  360,000  but  only  12,000 
vote  and  less  than  1,000  of  these  control  two- 
thirds  of  the  voting  power.  The  effect  of  this 
system  is  to  enfranchise  property  rather  than  in- 
dividuals and  to  make  the  basis  of  representation 
that  of  taxable  liability.  A  universal  manhood 
suffrage  would  mean  for  the  owners  of  property, 
taxation  without  proportional  representation. 
The  system  gives  the  power  to  those  taxed  of  run- 
ning the  city,  and  thus  every  move  for  or  against 
the  city  is  for  or  against  their  own  interests  as  the 


NON-POLITICAL  ADMINISTRATION      101 

city's  interests  are  identical  with  their  own, 
broadly  speaking.  This  system  is  in  principle, 
therefore,  very  different  from  the  American  one 
in  which  those  in  authority  in  a  city  have  very 
small  private  interests  in  it.  We  thus  put  plun- 
derers and  blunderers  in  office  to  run  our  cities 
while  in  Germany  the  chief  proprietors  of  the 
city's  material  values  are  put  in  charge.  There 
can  be  no  question  as  to  whether  a  plunderer  or  a 
proprietor  will  best  administer  a  property. 

So  well  satisfied  are  the  citizens  of  German 
cities  with  the  system  that  of  those  privileged  to 
vote,  often  not  over  30  per  cent,  will  take  the 
trouble  to  go  to  the  polls.  The  first  procedure 
in  city  government  in  Germany  is  to  elect  the 
council.  In  Berlin,  before  it  became  Greater 
Berlin,  now  with  4,000,000  population,  the  coun- 
cil consists  of  144  members  for  a  population  then 
j  ust  in  excess  of  2,000,000.  Breslau  with  500,000 
population  has  a  council  of  102  members ;  Essen, 
300,000,  62  members ;  Cologne,  500,000,  45  mem- 
bers ;  Hannover,  300,000,  36  members ;  Stuttgart, 
300,000,  32  members  and  smaller  cities  generally 
in  about  such  a  proportion. 

In  Berlin  and  other  Prussian  cities,  the  persons 
entitled  to  vote  are  about  19  per  cent,  of  the  total 
population.  In  Bavarian  cities  from  3  per  cent, 
to  6  per  cent. 

The  council,  upon  election,  selects  the  alder- 


102      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

men,  of  whom  there  are  roughly  about  one-quar- 
ter of  the  number  of  councilmen,  there  being  in  a 
general  way  one  alderman  for  from  2,500  to  10,- 
000  population  of  a  city's  population.  In  Ber- 
lin, there  are  34  aldermen,  in  Breslau  29,  Essen 
10,  Cologne  13,  and  Hannover  21.  The  council 
also  selects  the  mayor,  subject  to  the  approval  of 
the  king  and  state  ministry. 

The  aldermen  are  divided  into  two  classes, 
usually  of  about  an  equal  number.  Half  are 
high  salaried  experts  in  various  lines,  the  other 
half  are  honorary  and  are  usually  elderly  and 
prominent  citizens.  The  body  is  thus  composed 
both  of  members  of  influence  and  standing  and 
of  experts,  and  thus  commands  the  respect  of  the 
entire  community.  This  powerful  and  imposing 
body  is  nevertheless  subject  to  the  domination  of 
the  mayor,  though  in  different  cities  the  relative 
influence  of  the  mayor  and  aldermen  differs. 

In  addition  to  the  aldermen  and  mavor,  there 
are  what  correspond  in  the  United  States  to  com- 
mittees, placed  in  charge  of  certain  features  of  the 
city  government,  such  as  finance,  building,  poor 
relief,  public  health,  municipal  estate,  town  plan- 
ning, land  purchase,  abattoir,  gas  and  electric 
power,  street  railways,  sewage,  education,  parks, 
theatres,  market  halls,  etc.  The  council  dele- 
gates all  its  active  and  technical  duties  to  the  al- 
dermen and  mayor  and  principally  concerns  it- 


NON-POLITICAL  ADMINISTRATION      103 

self  with  the  inspection  of  the  budget,  which  is 
made  up  yearly  or  for  two  or  three  years. 

The  effect  of  the  whole  system  is  similar  to  that 
known  in  America,  as  noted,  as  the  commission 
form  of  city  government.  The  power  that  makes 
the  laws  is  charged  with  executing  them  and  pass- 
ing in  a  judicial  sense  upon  the  more  important 
questions.  The  instrument  of  government  is  ef- 
ficient and  effective.  The  council  has  nothing  to 
do  with  party  politics.  The  controlling  taxpay- 
ers are  vastly  more  interested  in  an  efficient  ad- 
ministration than  in  matters  of  national  policy, 
which  are  reserved  for  the  consideration  of  the 
national  assemblies.  The  city  administration  is 
thus  a  business  and  technical  procedure  calculated 
along  lines  of  the  greatest  possible  efficiency. 

German  cities  possess  practically  unlimited 
powers.  As  has  been  noted,  they  engage  in  any 
business  at  will  and  own  vast  tracts  of  land  both 
inside  and  outside  of  the  city  limits.  They  have 
power  to  tax  in  any  way  they  see  fit  and  they 
usually  tax  incomes,  but  they  lay  taxes  of  what- 
ever kind  most  heavily  upon  those  who  can  best 
afford  to  pay  and  who  are  most  benefited  by  the 
benefits  conferred  in  spending  tax  money. 

All  taxes  go  into  a  common  fund  from  which 
all  payments  are  made.  The  principal  revenue 
is  derived  from  real  estate  and  income  taxes, 
though  owing  to  their  large  landed  estates  large 


104      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

portions  of  the  necessary  funds  are  obtained 
therefrom,  greatly  lightening  the  ordinary  burden 
of  taxation. 

Real  estate  taxes  are  laid  upon  land,  buildings, 
sales,  unearned  increment  and  special  betterments 
accruing  to  a  property  through  improvements 
made  by  the  city.  Excess  condemnation  is  freely 
followed,  though  the  betterment  taxes  effect  the 
same  result  where  used. 

There  are  various  other  taxes,  such  as  fees  on 
doing  business,  sewage  and  scavenger  removal, 
and  various  assessments,  as  the  cities  have  power 
to  levy,  as  noted,  any  kind  of  taxes  and  to  change 
tax  systems  at  will,  which  they  frequently  do. 
Practically  every  one  is  caught  in  the  tax  net  to 
the  extent  of  his  proportionate  ability  to  pay,  and 
though  complicated,  the  taxes  are  highly  equi- 
table. 

With  their  well  paid  officials,  experts  in  their 
various  departments  working  in  conjunction  with 
the  city's  leading  citizens  and  under  a  capable 
mayor,  all  with  long  tenures  of  office,  there  is 
every  individual  incentive  to  honest  and  sustained 
effort  for  the  city's  good,  and  with  the  centralized 
system,  every  facility  for  putting  the  will  of  the 
public  as  expressed  in  the  council  into  execution. 
Is  it,  therefore,  any  wonder  that  German  cities 
are  models  of  efficient  municipal  activity?     Is  it 


NON-POLITICAL  ADMINISTRATION      105 

any  wonder  that  they  are  well  governed  and  free 
from  graft  while  the  municipalities  of  other  coun- 
tries are  hopelessly  switching  back  and  forth  from 
one  gang  of  plundering  partisans  to  another? 


CHAPTER  VIII 

COMPETITION   AND    CREDIT   IN   GERMANY 

THE  principal  political  and  financial  prob- 
lem with  which  the  United  States  is  faced 
at  present  is  the  problem  of  trusts. 
That  is  to  say,  the  proper  policy  to  be  adopted 
as  between  large  masses  of  capital  seeking 
monopoly  and  small  units  of  capital  striving  to 
maintain  themselves  in  the  field. 

The  problem  is  a  new  one  as  the  problems  of 
nations  go,  but  one  which  has  assumed  tremen- 
dous proportions,  growing  out  of  the  ill-advised 
efforts  of  the  government  to  destroy  pools,  as 
pointed  out  in  a  previous  article. 

In  breaking  up  the  pools  the  government  de- 
stroyed the  remedy  which  business  men  sought  for 
themselves  against  the  evils  of  destructive  compe- 
tition, and  compelled  them  in  self-defense  to  form 
the  trust,  instead  of  providing  a  suitable  remedy, 
which  would  have  been  the  proper  regulation  of 
competition,  for  the  evils  with  which  they  were 
surrounded. 

The  government  was  not  equal  to  the  occasion. 
Our  boasted  democratic  institutions,  fine  struc- 

106 


COMPETITION  AND  CREDIT  107 

tures  on  the  hills  of  tradition,  proved  useless  sanc- 
tuaries against  the  storms  of  private  greed. 

Germany,  however,  with  her  more  effective 
government  system,  acted  promptly  and  deci- 
sively, with  the  result  that  her  trust  problem  never 
assumed  dangerous  proportions. 

America  has  been  handicapped  by  both  an  un- 
formed policy  and  an  ineffective  method  of  carry- 
ing out  whatever  the  temporizing  policy  pur- 
sued. 

The  American  government,  after  long  delayed 
efforts,  has  succeeded  in  a  legal  case,  in  checking 
the  growth  of  the  trusts,  but  in  the  real  protection 
of  the  small  business  man  but  little  progress  has 
been  made. 

No  small  part  of  the  failure  of  the  government 
has  been  due  to  the  great  psychological  force  of 
popular  figures  of  speech,  which  have  blinded 
the  public  to  the  real  truth. 

The  word  "competition"  has  been  a  fetich  and 
a  false  god  of  incalculable  injury  to  the  public. 
Under  the  guise  of  "competition"  the  large  capi- 
tal units  have  ruthlessly  destroyed  the  smaller 
units.  The  favorite  method  has  been  to  select  a 
certain  locality,  cut  prices  therein,  cause  the  pub- 
he  to  believe  that  the  reduction  was  the  result  of 
"free  competition,"  and  having  reduced  prices  be- 
low the  cost  of  doing  business  and  having  bank- 
rupted all  the  small  dealers,  to  restore  prices  to 


108      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

a  level  sufficiently  higher  than  the  original  one  to 
reimburse  the  trust  for  all  the  losses  temporarily 
incurred,  and  to  bring  in  for  all  time  enormously 
greater  profits. 

While  this  form  of  "competition,"  in  reality 
robbery  beside  which  the  highway  man  becomes 
an  actual  benefactor,  has  been  going  on,  the  public 
and  the  public's  officials  have  been  inactive. 

The  matter  has  been  discussed  as  a  problem  of 
political  economy.  The  trusts  have  urged  that 
with  their  greater  facilities  they  are  able  to  serve 
the  public  more  cheaply.  They  have  made  it  ap- 
pear that  they  deserve  sympathy  rather  than  the 
small  dealer  who  is  usually  represented  as  a  kind 
of  a  rascal  pilfering  in  his  small  way.  And  they 
have  succeeded  in  monopolizing  large  portions  of 
the  nation's  business  until  now  they  urge  that 
their  organizations  are  so  complicated  that  they 
should  be  permitted  to  continue  to  exist  because 
it  is  too  difficult  a  task  to  unscramble  them. 

And  the  government  slowly  and  cumberously 
continues  its  ineffective  legal  measures  against 
them  while  the  general  public  is  still  further 
mulcted. 

Germany  early  realized  that  in  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  small  business  man  lay  the  prosperity 
of  the  nation.  However  much  the  Kings  of 
Prussia  or  the  German  Kaiser  may  be  criticised 
for  their  ornamental  ideas  about  the  divine  rights 


COMPETITION  AND  CREDIT  109 

of  kings,  they  have  for  generations  boasted  that 
they  are  the  kings  of  the  poor  and  they  have  made 
their  boast  good.  To-day,  in  Germany,  the  small 
business  man  has  a  better  chance  than  in  America, 
the  greatest  exemplar  in  theory,  of  popular  in- 
stitutions on  earth. 

The  government  in  Germany  has  not  been 
turned  aside  by  popular  phrases,  misconceptions 
of  what  was  actually  taking  place  or  about  to 
take  place,  or  any  reluctance  to  use  effective 
weapons  against  a  real  danger.  The  government 
has  been  composed  of  men  just  as  intelligent  and 
as  resourceful  as  those  in  control  of  private  capi- 
tal, and  just  as  much  devoted  to  the  public  inter- 
est as  the  capitalists  to  their  private  interests. 

The  result  has  been,  in  Germany,  freedom 
from  trust  domination,  and  in  America  disaster 
from  trust  domination,  where  our  public  servants 
have  either  been  unwilling  or  unable  or  not  suffi- 
ciently intelligent  to  oppose  the  progress  of  pri- 
vate monopoly. 

In  dealing  with  large  units  of  capital,  the  Ger- 
man government,  and  by  this  phrase,  I  refer  not 
only  to  the  imperial  but  to  all  the  royal  state  gov- 
ernments, has  adopted  every  expedient  that 
seemed  advisable.  It  has  prevented  prices  from 
being  reduced  below  a  certain  level  if  cut-throat 
competition  appeared  in  any  particular  spot. 
The  trusts,  unable  thus  to  undersell  the  small 


110      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

dealer,  were  at  the  stroke  of  a  pen,  blocked  in  their 
favorite  piece  of  strategy. 

Where  the  trusts  gained  control  of  supplies  and 
sought  in  that  way  to  exterminate  the  small  busi- 
ness man,  the  government  stepped  in  and  regu- 
lated the  maximum  prices  to  be  charged,  as  it  had 
regulated  the  minimum  prices. 

Where  trusts  sought  to  cut  off  the  supplies,  ir- 
respective of  prices,  in  an  arbitrary  manner,  and 
attempted  to  sell  only  to  or  through  certain  agen- 
cies, the  government  declared  such  practices  un- 
fair competition  and  stopped  them. 

Where  circumstances  dictated  such  a  course 
the  government  engaged  in  competitive  opera- 
tions and  undersold  the  trusts. 

And  at  all  times  the  government  has  favored 
the  small  dealer  in  the  purchase  of  its  own  sup- 
plies, accepting  small  amounts  of  goods  from 
large  numbers  of  small  dealers,  rather  than  re- 
ceiving bids  only  from  those  able  to  deliver  in 
enormous  quantities. 

The  great  importance  to  the  small  manufac- 
turer of  such  a  policy  can  scarcely  be  overesti- 
mated. 

The  trusts  thus  checkmated,  and  deprived  of 
bludgeon,  gag  and  knife,  have  been  unable  to  de- 
stroy their  small  competitors,  with  the  result  that 
real  competition  continues  and  the  commercial 
life-blood  circulates  in  its  accustomed  manner. 


COMPETITION  AND  CREDIT  111 

Another  source  of  depression  in  America  is 
due  to  the  exhaustion  of  natural  resources.  This 
countiy  has  been  despoiled  of  forests  and  of 
other  forms  of  natural  wealth  by  groups  of  capi- 
tal sacrificing  everything  to  the  profit  of  the 
hour. 

Germany  has  prevented  such  despoliation.  In 
the  case  of  the  potash  syndicate,  in  which  Ameri- 
can capitalists  attempted  the  same  tactics  as  those 
by  which  they  have  contributed  to  the  way-laying 
of  prosperity  in  this  country,  the  government 
stepped  in  and  fixed  the  maximum  output  of  the 
mines  and  placed  an  export  duty  on  potash  which 
assures  a  stable  industry  and  a  proper  conserva- 
tion of  the  supply.  Yet  to  this  perfectly  proper 
and  right  action  on  her  part  is  due  much  of  the 
anti-German  feeling  which  has  shown  itself  in 
this  country,  the  press  of  this  country  being  in- 
duced to  regard  her  action  as  one  directed  against 
American  enterprise  in  general  rather  than  as  a 
protection  to  herself  against  the  very  brigands 
who  had  so  successfully  pursued  their  robberies 
in  America. 

Canada's  failure  to  adopt  reciprocity  was 
largely  due  to  this  same  well-founded  fear  of  the 
methods  of  the  American  trusts  which,  when  their 
own  country  is  despoiled,  turn  to  other  lands  for 
fresh  victims. 

America,  however,  is  unable  to  adopt  the  ex- 


112      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

pedient  Germany  found  so  successful,  for  the 
nation  has  divested  itself  of  the  power  to  lay  an 
export  duty.  This  is  one  of  the  grotesque  an- 
achronisms of  our  Constitution. 

And  America  is  unable  or  powerfully  indis- 
posed at  least  to  act  directly  and  promptly  in  mat- 
ters of  enormous  consequence.  Actually,  years 
are  consumed  in  reaching  the  Supreme  Court, 
whereas  in  Germany  such  issues  may  almost  in- 
stantly be  submitted  to  the  tribunal  of  the  people's 
will  through  the  instrumentality  of  the  Bundesrat. 

One  of  the  great  American  monopolies  has  a 
large  board  of  directors  who  sit  every  day.  Any 
question  of  policy  of  any  magnitude,  or  any  de- 
tail, however  small,  may  be  referred  to  them  from 
any  part  of  the  country  or  the  world  and  the  com- 
pany reaches  its  decision  within  twenty-four 
hours  as  to  the  policy  and  treatment  of  the  sub- 
ject. The  government  cannot,  in  as  many 
months,  even  get  a  proposal  of  action  against  a 
trust  well  digested.  Is  it  any  wonder  then  that 
the  trusts  flourish  and  by  evasive  subterfuge,  if 
not  by  direct  defiance,  succeed  in  their  designs  ? 

But  Germany  is  not  content  alone  with  regu- 
lating prices  and  sources  of  supply  as  a  means 
of  combating  the  evil  of  monopoly.  She  directly 
encourages  in  every  practicable  manner  the  small 
business  man  and  manufacturer,  adopting  espe- 
cially for  the  purpose  a  highly  effecting  banking 
practice. 


COMPETITION  AND  CREDIT  113 

The  small  business  man  may  borrow  readily, 
whatever  amounts  of  money  he  may  legitimately 
require  in  his  business,  and  the  inventor  and 
manufacturer  with  new  propositions  find  in  the 
government  a  patron  who  will  advance  whatever 
funds  may  be  needed  to  put  their  enterprises  on  a 
paying  basis. 

This  is  done  through  the  institution  of  the  pro- 
moting bank,  which  upon  application  will  investi- 
gate both  the  technical  and  commercial  possibili- 
ties of  the  proposal.  Such  an  examination  is  al- 
ways a  thorough  one,  but  if  the  decision  is  favor- 
able, the  money  will  be  forthcoming.  In  the 
United  States  the  idea  of  the  government  as  a 
promoter  would  appear  revolutionary.  The  in- 
ventor here  is  left  to  the  tender  mercies  of  the 
trusts,  which  in  some  lines  fix  a  maximum  price, 
in  one  case  of  $500  for  any  invention  which  is  of 
utility  in  its  field,  no  matter  what  its  real  value. 
This  the  inventor  must  accept  as  there  is  no  other 
market  for  it  and  capital  cannot  be  enlisted  to 
compete  with  the  trust  as  it  controls  all  the  basic 
patents. 

The  German  trust  and  banking  policies  en- 
courage invention,  while  by  reason  of  our  own 
methods,  our  patent  office  is  used  as  a  lever 
against  the  inventor,  who  should  be  one  of  the 
most  powerful  factors  in  the  material  progress 
of  a  country.     The  American  inventor  was  once 


114      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

the  pride  of  this  country,  but  he  has  latterly  come 
near  to  extinction  under  the  heel  of  the  trust. 

The  German  government  is  not  only  ready  to 
help  the  small  business  man,  but  instead  of  per- 
mitting him  to  be  accused  of  being  a  rascal,  as  he 
is  by  the  trusts  in  this  country,  he  is  not  per- 
mitted to  be  a  rascal.  He  is  compelled  to  keep  a 
system  of  books  and  to  show  his  accounts  to  the 
government  whenever  a  showing  is  required. 

Thus  he  may  be  fairly  taxed,  and  in  turn  when 
he  needs  capital  he  may  show  his  books  to  the 
banks  and  receive  it  on  the  showing  he  makes. 

As  the  penalties  are  severe  for  false  entries 
and  books  are  required  to  be  preserved  for  long 
periods,  the  business  man  is  in  a  kind  of  prac- 
tical partnership  with  the  government  which, 
though  it  might  seem  inquisitorial  to  Americans 
is  nevertheless  a  great  source  of  strength  to  the 
honest  man,  who  in  reality  has  nothing  which  he 
should  desire  to  conceal  from  such  a  business 
partner  as  the  government  is  always  willing  to  be. 

It  should  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  the 
protection  which  Germany  has  accorded  to  the 
small  business  man  has  prevented  the  proper  de- 
velopment of  those  industries  which  can  be  best 
carried  on  by  larger  units.  Germany  has  many 
enormous  concerns,  perhaps  larger  than  those  of 
other  countries,  but  they  do  not  operate  to  close 
the  avenues  of  opportunity  to  the  small  man. 


COMPETITION  AND  CREDIT  115 

The  following  figures  are  interesting  in  this 
connection.  They  show  that  while  large  concerns 
increased  more  rapidly  than  small  ones  in  the 
period  of  25  years,  from  1882  to  1907,  the  small 
concerns  showed  large  positive  increases,  as  will 
be  seen  by  the  following  table : 

Number  of  Concerns  and  Persons  Employed 

Persons 
1882 —  Concerns        employed 

Small  concerns,  1-5  employees 2,882,768        4,335,822 

Medium  concerns,  6-50  employees 112,715         1,391,720 

Large  concerns,  51  and  more  employees..  9,974         1,613,247 

Concerns  of  1,000  and  more  employees...  127  213,160 

Totals  3,005,584        7,553,949 

1895— 

Small  concerns,  1-5  employees 2,934,723  4,770,669 

Medium  concerns,  6-50  employees 191,301  2,454,333 

Large  concerns,  51  and  more  employees..        18,953  3,044,267 

Concerns  of  1,000  and  more  employees 255  448,731 

Totals  3,145,232       10,718,000 

1907*— 

Small  concerns,  1-5  employees 3,124,198  5,353,576 

Medium  concerns,  6-50  employees 267,410  3,644,415 

Large  concerns,  51  and  more  employees..  32,007  5,350,025 

Concerns  of  1,000  and  more  employees. . . .  506  954,645 

Totals  3,424,121       15,302,661 

One  of  the  tests  of  the  proper  economic  de- 
velopment of  a  country  is  seen  in  the  distribution 
of  wealth. 

In  this  respect  America  shows  a  startling  con- 
dition of  affairs.  The  wealthy  are  constantly 
growing  more  wealthy  and  the  poor  poorer. 

Not  including  music,  theatres,  and  public  amusements. 


* 


116      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

According  to  the  wealth  statistics  of  the  tenth 
census,  3%  of  the  American  people  own  20%  of 
the  wealth,  9%  own  51%  of  the  wealth  while 
88%  of  the  people  own  but  29%  of  the  wealth. 

This  means  that  a  small  number  of  wealthy 
people  have  prospered  at  the  expense  of  the  whole 
body  of  the  state. 

In  Germany,  on  the  other  hand,  only  2  %  of  the 
wealth  is  held  by  the  rich,  while  54%  is  held  by 
the  middle  classes  and  44%  by  the  lower  classes. 

In  addition,  the  per  capita  of  wealth  in  Ger- 
many has  rapidly  increased  of  recent  years  and 
this  actual  increase  of  wealth  has  been  held  in  the 
hands  of  the  people  who  produced  it. 

Whose  business,  it  may  be  inquired,  is  it  in 
America  to  direct  the  operations  of  government 
in  such  manner  that  wealth  will  be  equitably 
distributed  or  prevented  from  accumulating  in- 
equitably ? 

If  it  is  anybody's  business,  it  certainly  has  not 
been  well  attended  to.  And  if  the  nation  does 
not  make  it  its  business  what  is  to  be  the  future  of 
America — a  land  of  infinitely  poor  but  highly  in- 
telligent people  under  the  rule  of  the  masters  of 
enormous  wealth?  This  is  surely  a  strange  out- 
come of  democracy.  Yet  it  is  the  inevitable  out- 
come if  radical  changes  are  not  made  in  the  form 
of  government.  But  such  an  outcome  is  not 
strange  to  those  who  have  considered  the  circum- 


COMPETITION  AND  CREDIT  117 

stances  under  which  the  government  was  insti- 
tuted. 

Our  early  patriots  were  largely  men  of  wealth. 
Washington  was  the  richest  man  of  his  time. 
Wealth  was  frankly  respected  in  those  days. 
The  form  of  government  was  calculated  to  pre- 
serve the  status  of  the  men  of  means  who  for- 
mulated it.  It  has  admirably  served  this  pur- 
pose. 

Do  the  public  want  a  change  now?  It  is  an 
open  question.  Most  Americans  seem  to  be  will- 
ing for  any  one  to  become  as  rich  as  he  is  able, 
so  long  as  their  one-hundredth  million  chance  of 
becoming  the  richest  person  in  the  country  is  not 
interfered  with.  Perhaps  as  a  German,  I  have 
read  the  desires  of  the  citizens  of  the  country  of 
my  adoption  wrongly. 

If  every  American  sees  in  himself  a  potential 
millionaire  and  does  not  wish  to  have  that  dream 
disturbed,  let  us  by  all  means  continue  things 
as  they  are.  Who  cares  if  the  shoe  pinches  as 
long  as  it  seems  to  be  a  stilt  ? 


CHAPTER  IX 

SCIENCE   AS   THE   OVER-LORD   OF   THE   WORLD'S 

INDUSTRY 

THE  commanding  position  which  Ger- 
many occupies  to-day  in  the  field  of  ap- 
plied science  is  but  little  realized  by  the 
general  public  in  other  countries.  Engineers  and 
technical  men  understand  it  to  some  extent,  but 
ostrich-like,  they,  for  the  most  part,  seek  to  con- 
ceal the  truth  even  from  themselves. 

It  is  humiliating  for  them  to  admit  their  failure 
where  German  scientists  have  succeeded. 

Yet  before  scientists  of  other  countries  can 
hope  to  compete  with  those  of  Germany,  and  es- 
pecially before  the  scientists  and  inventors  of 
America  can  hope  to  do  so,  a  new  political  policy 
must  be  adopted. 

As  has  been  pointed  out,  great  aggregations  of 
wealth  have  grown  up  in  this  country  which  find 
it  to  their  interest  to  discourage  invention.  Any 
change  means  the  upsetting  of  the  routine  of 
profit,  and  their  occupancy  of  the  field  shuts  out 
the  independent  activities  of  the  inventor  and  the 
scientist. 

118 


SCIENCE  AS  THE  OVER-LORD  119 

Progress  is  thus  paralyzed,  and  the  commercial 
and  industrial  activities  of  the  whole  country- 
slackened  as  a  result  of  the  indecisive  political 
policy  of  the  country  in  dealing  with  the  situa- 
tion thus  created.  The  prosperity  of  all  is  af- 
fected through  the  failure  of  the  citizen  to  express 
his  view  at  the  polls  in  ways  which  are  calculated 
to  ensure  a  proper  governmental  policy. 

The  example  of  Germany  demonstrates  the 
tremendous  result  for  good  of  such  a  governmen- 
tal policy.  Germany  has  long  pursued  the  most 
enlightened  of  policies  towards  her  inventors  and 
manufacturers,  realizing  that  the  true  source  of 
her  greatness  was  to  be  found  in  that  direction, 
since,  wanting  in  natural  resources,  there  was  no 
possibility  of  her  competing  with  other  countries 
more  liberally  favored  by  nature. 

Wealth  is  produced  by  labor,  both  manual  and 
mental,  but  the  greatest  result  of  mental  labor  is 
invention,  and  by  means  of  inventions  great 
amounts  of  manual  labor  are  saved,  or  equal 
amounts  made  to  produce  vastly  greater  results. 

Labor  multiplied  by  invention  produces  a 
greater  surplus  of  wealth  than  that  which  existed 
before.  This  permits  the  enjoyment  by  the 
whole  people  of  comforts  and  luxuries  which  were 
not  previously  obtainable.  Before  the  invention 
of  harvesting  machines,  wheat  was  more  expen- 
sive to  harvest  than  since  and  bread  was  dearer. 


120      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

To-day  the  enormous  daily  saving  in  the  cost  of 
bread  permits  the  public  to  enjoy  luxuries  which 
would  not  have  been  possible  had  no  such  machin- 
ery been  invented. 

The  policy  of  the  German  government  has 
been  to  put  this  obvious  but  fundamental  precept 
of  political  economy  into  operation  in  every  pos- 
sible field.  It  has  created  a  tremendous  national 
force  out  of  a  commonplace  of  the  text  books. 
In  other  countries  the  text  has  remained  in  the 
text  books. 

Perhaps  the  most  conspicuous  success  of  the 
policy  is  seen  in  the  chemical  field.  German 
chemists  under  the  stimulus  of  governmental  en- 
couragement, both  directly  through  the  offering 
of  prizes,  the  governmental  support  of  technical 
schools,  the  unbounded  provision  of  laboratory 
facilities  and  the  protection  of  the  inventor-chem- 
ists, and  indirectly,  through  the  general  policy  of 
encouragement  of  new  inventions  by  the  exten- 
sion of  banking  credit  and  otherwise,  have  out- 
distanced the  world. 

The  achievements  of  her  chemists  have  enabled 
Germany,  from  a  lump  of  coal  of  insignificant 
value  to  produce  coke,  gas,  coal  tar,  benzol,  and 
various  coal-tar  products  such  as  anilin  and  alaza- 
rin  dyes,  pharmaceutical  preparations  like  aspirin 
and  phenacetin,  saccharin  and  various  oils. 

Thus,  thanks  to  Germany's  policy,  the  low 


SCIENCE  AS  THE  OVER-LORD  121 

grade  raw  material,  coal,  once  only  useful  for 
fuel,  now  affords  the  world  the  most  beautiful 
and  useful  of  dyes,  important  medicinal  remedies, 
super-sugar,  oils  for  various  purposes,  a  cheap 
and  highly  useful  substitute  for  gasoline  for  au- 
tomobile and  other  motors;  besides,  retaining  in 
the  form  of  coke,  all  its  values  for  fuel  purposes. 

Countries  without  a  definite  policy  of  govern- 
mental encouragement  of  the  arts  and  sciences 
now  pay  tribute  to  German  progress.  In  the 
United  States,  for  example,  over  a  million  men 
were  thrown  out  of  work  in  the  cloth  industry 
alone,  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  by  the  inability 
of  our  manufacturers  to  import  from  Germany 
dye  stuffs  and  other  chemicals  used  in  the  proc- 
esses of  various  manufactures  here.  America  is, 
indeed,  far  more  dependent  upon  Germany  for 
materials  of  manufacture  than  Germany  is  on  this 
country  for  raw  materials. 

The  policy  of  governmental  inactivity  worked 
very  well  as  long  as  no  country  adopted  a  policy 
of  activity,  but  now  that  Germany  has  taken  the 
initiative,  other  countries  must  follow  suit  or  be 
badly  worsted  in  the  struggle  for  commercial  su- 
premacy, which  eventually  results  in  ethical  and 
cultural  achievements. 

German  scientific  and  technical  progress  in 
other  lines  is  just  as  marked  as  in  the  instance 
cited.     Germany  leads  the  world  in  modern  dis- 


122      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

coveries  in  machinery,  particularly  in  the  devel- 
opment of  the  explosive  motor,  as  in  the  Diesel 
engine,  which  has  now  been  perfected  to  such  a 
point  that  crude  oil  and  tar  oil  may  be  used,  vastly 
cheaper  fuels  than  the  high-priced  gasoline  of 
other  countries. 

The  alcohol  engine  and  the  alcohol  lamp  have 
been  perfected,  enabling  the  farmer,  who  makes 
his  own  alcohol  from  grain  and  potatoes,  to  sup- 
ply himself  with  power,  light  and  fuel  at  small 
expense,  utilizing  products  that  otherwise  would 
have  very  much  less  value  or  be  wasted  entirely. 

The  government,  however,  is  just  as  active  in 
promoting  the  agricultural  industry  as  in  pro- 
moting any  other  industry  and  German  scientists 
lead  the  world  in  their  discoveries  of  value  to  the 
agriculturalist. 

One  of  the  most  notable  achievements  in  this 
respect  is  the  perfecting  of  the  process  of  extract- 
ing nitrogen  from  the  air.  As  nitrogen  is  one 
of  the  principal  needs  of  vegetation,  the  process 
of  making  air  nitrate  is  consequently  one  of  the 
most  momentous  inventions  that  has  ever  been 
made. 

It  is  now  possible  to  extract  from  the  nitrogen 
of  the  air  nitrate  in  form  suitable  for  utilization 
as  fertilizer  and  for  the  other  manifold  purposes 
to  which  nitrate  is  put. 

The  world  was  threatened  with  exhaustion  of 


SCIENCE  AS  THE  OVER-LORD  123 

its  supplies  of  fertilizer  and  with  the  consequent 
increased  cost  of  living,  but  this  invention  means 
that  the  earth  will  ultimately  support  for  count- 
less ages  billions  of  human  beings  who  without 
it  would  not  even  have  been  able  to  come  into 
existence,  owing  to  lack  of  food. 

Thus,  for  all  time  humanity  will  look  back 
upon  the  German  government  of  the  present  gen- 
erations as  one  of  the  greatest  benefactors  of  man- 
kind, and  its  policies  as  one  of  the  wisest  ever 
adopted  by  human  agencies. 

Nor  is  the  immediate  effect  of  these  policies 
confined  to  Germany.  India  even  enjoys  vastly 
greater  prosperity  now  than  a  generation  ago, 
owing  to  the  fact  that  the  substitution  of  coal  tar 
for  vegetable  dyes  liberates  a  large  body  of  labor 
and  a  large  acreage  of  soil,  to  more  profitable 
uses. 

The  cheapening  of  fabrics  and  the  finer  and 
more  varied  effects  of  the  dyes  increase  the  vol- 
ume of  manufactured  goods  in  all  cloth  manufac- 
turing countries  and  result  in  prosperity  in  these 
lines  all  over  the  world. 

Germany  has  been  particularly  fortunate  in 
the  utilization  of  by-products.  For  a  long  time 
her  steel  industry  lagged  behind  that  of  other 
countries,  owing  to  the  fact  that  her  iron  ores 
contained  a  percentage  of  phosphorus  which  made 
them  difficult  to  utilize. 


1M      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

A  process,  however,  was  presently  developed 
which  effected  the  separation  of  the  phosphorous 
content  and  from  the  slag  containing  the  phos- 
phorus was  manufactured  a  form  of  fertilizer 
of  the  greatest  value.  Thus,  where  there  had 
been  practically  useless  iron  ores  there  came  to 
be  highly  valuable  ore  and  highly  valuable  by- 
products, a  triumph  of  chemistry  that  has  meant 
and  continues  to  mean  enormous  material  pros- 
perity not  only  for  Germany,  but  for  the  other 
countries  that  adopted  the  policy. 

The  impetus  which  has  been  given  to  the  chemi- 
cal industry  in  Germany,  especially  in  metallurgy, 
has  resulted  in  the  production  of  f erromanganese 
and  other  elements  which  are  indispensable  in 
the  manufacture  of  the  better  grades  of  steels. 
How  important  these  discoveries  have  been  is 
seen  from  the  effect  produced  by  the  stoppage 
of  imports  from  Germany  due  to  the  war,  for 
large  activities  of  the  steel-making  industry  in 
this  country  are  hampered  on  account  of  the  lack 
of  these  highly  necessary  ingredients,  just  as  the 
cloth  and  other  textile  industries  suffer  for  lack  of 
the  necessary  dye  stuffs. 

The  full  importance  to  this  country  of  unin- 
terrupted communication  with  Germany  has 
never  before  been  realized.  While  it  requires  no 
very  vivid  imagination  to  picture  the  effects  of 
such  stoppage,  the  fact  that  it  has  never  before 


SCIENCE  AS  THE  OVER-LORD  125 

occurred  has  prevented  a  true  realization  of  the 
dependence  which  this  country  places  in  the  su- 
perior technical  resources  of  Germany. 

It  brings  home  with  terrible  force  the  almost 
suicidal  policy  of  sloth  which  has  characterized 
the  governmental  policy  in  this  country  hereto- 
fore and  emphasizes  the  fact  that  we  are  de- 
pendent upon  Germany  rather  than  Germany  on 
us. 

The  public  press  has  ceaselessly  fanned  the 
flames  of  anti-German  prejudice  without  realiz- 
ing the  results  of  retaliation  on  the  part  of  Ger- 
many. 

Imagine  the  results  should  Germany  under- 
take a  policy  of  reprisals.  If  she  should  shut  off 
the  supply  of  dye  stuffs,  the  cloth  manufacturing 
industry  in  this  countiy  and  England  would  re- 
ceive a  staggering  blow.  The  importance  to 
Germany  of  the  loss  of  the  value  of  the  dye 
stuffs  exported  would  be  comparatively  small. 

But  our  cloth  industry  would  be  paralyzed  un- 
til new  sources  of  dyes  could  be  found,  which 
would  take  many  years,  for  German  experiments 
of  over  a  generation  have  been  necessary  to  the 
production  of  her  dye  stuffs,  and  there  is  no  sys- 
tem of  encouragement  here  or  in  any  other  coun- 
try which  could  operate  to  reproduce  her  results 
until  long  after  the  cloth  manufacturing  industry 
would  be  practically  bankrupt. 


126      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

In  the  meantime  Germany  would  have  seized 
the  world's  cloth  manufacturing  and  would  be 
able  to  compete  successfully  with  the  rest  of  the 
world  under  any  and  all  circumstances  that  might 
arise. 

Not  only  would  this  occur,  but  German  chemi- 
cal progress  will  go  on  all  the  while  with  new  dis- 
coveries while  other  countries  are  merely  trying 
to  follow  in  her  paths.  The  most  important  of 
her  discoveries,  especially  in  chemical  science,  are 
trade  secrets  and  capable  of  being  retained  as 
such,  so  that  by  an  alteration  in  her  policy  towards 
other  countries,  she  could  cause  incalculable  dam- 
age without  suffering  herself  in  a  slight  degree. 

It  is  true  that  she  is  dependent  upon  other 
countries  for  cotton  as  a  raw  material,  but  new 
discoveries  already  promise  a  thoroughly  accept- 
able substitute  for  cotton  which  can  be  manufac- 
tured out  of  raw  material  which  she  can  herself 
produce  in  unlimited  quantities. 

The  same  disaster  as  would  result  in  the  cloth 
industry  by  her  shutting  off  the  supplies  of  dye 
stuffs  would  result  in  steel  making  by  her  refusal 
to  export  certain  elements  of  which  she  has  the 
monopoly,  and  the  same  thing  is  true  of  many 
other  industries. 

The  superior  position  which  she  has  gained 
for  herself  should  thus  make  it  the  part  of  wis- 
dom for  neutral  countries  not  to  invite  a  policy  of 


SCIENCE  AS  THE  OVER-LORD  127 

reprisals,  not  only  in  view  of  present  discoveries, 
but  in  respect  to  those  which  are  yet  to  be  made, 
for  the  same  forces  which  have  brought  her  to  the 
front  in  applied  science  are  still  in  operation  and 
will  still  continue  to  advance  her. 

The  enormous  activity  of  chemists,  engineers, 
manufacturers  and  other  scientific  inventors  in 
Germany  is,  as  has  been  noted,  but  little  under- 
stood in  other  countries,  especially  in  America. 

In  this  country,  relying  upon  the  former  em- 
inence of  our  inventors  before  the  trusts  fell  afoul 
of  them,  the  public  still  believes  that  the  Ameri- 
can inventor  occupies  the  foremost  position  in  the 
world  of  progress. 

Such  is  far  from  being  the  case  and  American 
inventors  are  not  only  not  making  any  more 
great  discoveries,  but  owing  to  the  gradually 
erected  barriers  of  legal  technicalities  which  the 
courts  have  built  up  about  the  patent  system,  and 
to  the  activities  of  the  trusts,  there  is  little  pros- 
pect that  they  will  soon  even  begin  to  regain  lost 
laurels. 

The  lack  of  interest  in  this  country  in  technical 
progress  as  compared  with  Germany  is  seen  in 
the  number  of  technical  and  scientific  publications 
which  are  issued. 

In  the  year  1910  there  were  issued  throughout 
the  world  some  15,540  technical  and  scientific 
books  but  10,400  of  these  were  issued  in  Germany. 


128      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

These  figures  do  not  include  periodicals  with 
the  great  number  of  valuable  articles  published  by 
them,  and  Germany  has  a  vastly  greater  number 
of  technical  periodicals  than  all  other  countries 
combined. 

Of  the  15,540  technical  works,  those  of  all  Eng- 
lish-speaking nations  aggregated  2,100,  while  in 
France  2,000  were  published. 

This  is  merely  a  single  index  of  the  difference 
in  scientific  activity.  It  is  sufficient  to  show, 
however,  one  of  the  causes  of  Germany's  unex- 
ampled progress. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  NEW  SCIENCE  OF  GERMAN  AGRICULTURE 

WITHIN  a  generation,  agriculture,  the 
primary  art  of  humanity,  has  had  its 
processes  improved  more  than  in  all  the 
thousands  of  years  that  went  before.  The  tiller 
of  the  soil  is  gradually  straightening  his  back  and 
becoming  not  merely  a  human  work-horse,  but  a 
man  among  men,  an  operator  of  mechanism  and 
a  favored  beneficiary  of  the  discoveries  of  science. 

In  agricultural  progress  as  in  other  industrial 
progress  Germany  has  blazed  the  way. 

Her  scientists,  chemists  and  inventors  have  ap- 
plied themselves  to  the  problems  of  agriculture 
with  no  less  zest  than  to  those  of  mechanics  and 
manufacture.  These  activities  have  taken  four 
principal  directions :  the  improvement  of  the  fer- 
tility of  the  soil;  the  improvement  of  species  by 
selection  and  special  cultivation;  the  reduction 
of  the  amount  of  labor  necessary  to  sow  and  har- 
vest the  crops,  and  the  utilization  of  the  entire 
yield  in  one  form  or  another,  particularly  in  the 
form  of  by-products,  that  is,  the  putting  to  some 

129 


130      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

useful  purpose  of  materials  that  formerly  went 
to  waste. 

In  addition  to  the  technical  phases  of  agricul- 
ture, Germany  has  considered  the  commercial 
side  and  has  facilitated  the  work  of  the  farmer  by 
supplying  necessary  capital  and  by  providing  fa- 
cilities for  marketing  of  crops.  The  result  is 
that  in  all  respects  the  German  farmer  is  in  ad- 
vance of  his  contemporaries  in  other  countries, 
and  in  spite  of  the  poorer  quality  of  his  soil  pro- 
duces larger  yields  at  greater  profit,  and  this  in 
the  face  of  competition  from  the  virgin  lands  of 
the  United  States  and  Russia. 

The  enormous  advances  which  Germany  has 
made  in  agriculture  may  be  appreciated  when  the 
fact  is  known  that  within  thirty  years  her  total 
yield  of  wheat  has  been  increased  57%  and  other 
important  crops  from  50  to  80%  without  any 
material  increase  of  acreage  and  without  any  in- 
crease in  the  number  of  her  inhabitants  devoting 
themselves  to  agricultural  pursuits. 

The  whole  increase  of  her  population  has  thus 
been  able  to  devote  itself  to  other  pursuits,  which 
would  not  have  been  the  case  had  the  existing  con- 
ditions of  agricultural  industry  not  been  im- 
proved. 

The  great  chemical  and  manufacturing  enter- 
prises of  Germany  have  somewhat  obscured  the 
thriving  condition  of  her  agriculture.     Germany 


SCIENCE  OF  GERMAN  AGRICULTURE      131 

is  the  third  of  the  agricultural  countries  of  the 
world.  Russia  produces  only  a  little  more  than 
twice  as  much  wheat  and  rye  and  the  United 
States  hardly  any  more  than  Germany,  while 
Germany  produces  50%  more  than  either  France 
or  Austria,  the  next  in  order.  Practically  the 
same  ratio  obtains  for  barley  and  oats.  In  the 
production  of  potatoes  Germany  leads  the  world, 
with  10%  more  than  Russia,  twice  as  much  as 
Austria,  three  times  as  much  as  France  and  five 
times  as  much  as  the  United  States.  Germany 
produces  over  35,000,000  tons  of  potatoes  while 
Russia's  production  of  wheat  is  only  about  31,- 
000,000  tons.  The  significance  of  this  vast  yield 
may  be  appreciated  when  it  is  understood  that 
potato  flour  is  a  great  market  staple,  while  alcohol 
from  potatoes  also  occupies  an  important  place 
in  industry. 

As  a  war  measure  the  German  government  has 
made  a  regulation  that  10  to  15%  of  potato  flour 
is  to  be  mixed  with  other  flour  in  the  making  of 
bread.  The  result  has  been  not  only  to  reduce 
the  cost  of  bread  but  also  to  improve  its  quality. 
Germany  maintains  some  500  drying  plants  to 
preserve  potatoes  instead  of  storing  in  silos  or 
bins,  for  when  put  into  bins  for  storage,  their 
value  shrinks  10%  which  would  mean  a  total 
loss  or  $25,000,000  annually. 

The  process  of  preserving  potatoes  consists 


132      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

of  washing,  drying,  peeling  and  cutting  and 
again  drying,  and  the  product  is  finally  placed  on 
the  market  in  the  form  of  potato  flakes.  The 
prices  vary  from  1%  to  1%  cents  per  pound. 

A  large  part  of  the  German  potato  yield  is 
converted  into  the  so-called  potato  flour,  and  sold 
at  retail  in  the  groceries  throughout  Europe  for 
cooking  purposes.  There  is  also  a  flour  pro- 
duced by  grinding  and  bolting  dried  potatoes, 
but  this,  however,  is  a  comparatively  new  product. 

Germany  leads  the  world  in  beet  sugar  pro- 
duction. Her  scientists  were  the  discoverers  of 
the  possibility  of  producing  sugar  from  beets  and 
she  has  always  been  far  in  the  lead  in  this  field. 

She  produces  about  two  and  a  half  million  tons 
of  beet  sugar  annually  or  over  75  pounds  per 
capita  for  her  67,000,000  population.  Russia 
is  second  in  beet  sugar  production  with  a  million 
and  three-quarter  tons,  while  the  United  States 
produces  but  half  a  million  tons.  In  forty  years 
the  beet  sugar  manufacturing  processes  and  the 
improvements  in  beet  culture  have  doubled  the 
yield  of  sugar  per  pound  of  beets,  while  the  crop 
is  50%  greater  in  tonnage  per  acre. 

In  live  stock  Germany  has  made  substantial 
progress  but  rather  in  quality  than  in  quantity, 
as  she  has  found  it  more  profitable  to  devote  land 
to  crops  than  to  pasturage  for  animals. 

A  comparison  of  the  purposes  for  which  lands 


SCIENCE  OF  GERMAN  AGRICULTURE      133 

are  utilized  in  Germany,  Great  Britain  and 
France  is  interesting  in  this  respect.  To  crops 
and  vineyards  Germany  devotes  48%  of  her  acre- 
age, Great  Britain  24%  and  France  59%.  To 
meadows  and  pasturage,  Germany  16%,  Great 
Britain  53%  and  France  10%;  to  forests,  Ger- 
many 25%,  Great  Britain  4%  and  France  15%. 
Germany  has  only  9%  of  unproductive  land 
while  Great  Britain  has  18%  and  France  14%. 

The  great  proportion  of  Great  Britain's  pas- 
ture land  is  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  she  has 
some  26,000,000  head  of  sheep  or  four  times  the 
number  of  Germany,  which,  however,  has  almost 
as  many  hogs  as  Great  Britain  has  sheep.  In 
cattle,  Germany  has  three  times  the  number  of 
Great  Britain.  These  animals,  however,  are 
largely  used  in  the  production  of  daily  products 
in  which  Germany  has  made  great  progress,  es- 
pecially in  the  manufacture  of  specialized  prod- 
ucts such  as  tropin  somatose,  nutrose  plasmin, 
santogen,  eukasin,  roborat  and  the  like,  which 
are  largely  dairy  products  and  which  command 
high  prices  and  represent  still  another  form  of 
the  policy  of  Germany  before  referred  to,  that  of 
turning  a  raw  material  of  low  value  into  a  fin- 
ished product  of  high  value. 

A  striking  feature  of  Germany's  agricultural 
policy  is  seen  in  the  use  of  fertilizer.  Germany 
uses  more  potash  salts  than  does  the  rest  of  the 
world  combined. 


134      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

On  the  basis  of  cultivated  acreage  the  use  of 
potash  salts  is  in  about  the  following  proportion : 
France,  8;  United  States,  14;  Great  Britain,  20; 
and  Germany,  120.  The  increase  in  the  use  of 
Chile  saltpeter  throughout  the  world  in  thirty 
years  to  1910  was  from  230  to  2,274  thousand 
tons.  Germany's  use  of  it  increased  from  55  to 
750  thousand  tons  per  annum,  a  vastly  more 
rapid  increase  than  that  of  the  rest  of  the  world. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  Germany  is  not  grow- 
ing crops  in  the  sense  that  crops  are  grown  on 
the  virgin  soils  of  the  United  States  and  Russia, 
which  are  year  by  year  becoming  impoverished, 
but  she  is  actually  manufacturing  crops,  using 
the  soil  only  as  a  container  for  the  fertilizing 
products  which  nature  transforms  into  vegeta- 
tion. Her  position  is,  therefore,  secure  and  she 
can  continue  indefinitely  to  produce  as  she  is  do- 
ing at  present,  while  other  countries  must  even- 
tually increase  the  use  of  fertilizer  and  restore 
their  wasted  lands  at  great  cost,  and  thus  reduce 
the  profits  from  their  crops. 

In  yield  per  acre  of  wheat  Germany  stands  at 
the  head,  the  ratio  being  about  as  follows :  Russia, 
4;  United  States,  8;  France,  13;  Austria,  14; 
and  Germany,  20.  In  yield  per  acre  of  potatoes 
the  ratio  is  United  States,  54 ;  Russia,  70 ;  France, 
74;  Austria,  92;  and  Germany,  103. 

Russia  with  her  great  acreage  and  with  the 


SCIENCE  OF  GERMAN  AGRICULTURE      135 

same  agricultural  efficiency  would  produce  ten 
times  as  much  wheat  as  Germany,  instead  of  only 
about  twice  as  much,  while  the  United  States 
would  produce  three  times  as  much  instead  of 
being  only  slightly  in  the  lead.  When  it  is  re- 
membered that  Germany  is  only  about  four-fifths 
the  size  of  Texas,  the  comparison  with  the  United 
States  is  seen  to  be  the  more  startling.  It  is  only 
fair  to  remember,  however,  that  the  United  States 
devotes  a  large  acreage  to  cotton  and  corn  which 
are  not  produced  at  all  in  Germany. 

On  the  other  hand,  25%  of  Germany  consists 
of  forests  lands,  while  only  4%  of  Great  Britain 
and  15%  of  France  is  similarly  used. 

Forests  are  ordinarily  regarded  as  an  unpro- 
ductive or  comparatively  unproductive  crop,  but 
with  German  methods,  her  forest  industry  is  a 
most  important  and  profitable  one. 

She  is  not  diminishing  her  forest  acreage  but 
proposes  to  retain  it  as  it  is.  About  half  her 
forests  belong  to  the  states  and  municipalities 
as  pointed  out  in  a  previous  chapter,  and  timber 
is  regularly  harvested. 

Enough  trees,  however,  are  planted  to  keep  up 
the  supply  so  that  she  is  not  despoiled  of  her 
forests  as  the  United  States  has  been  and  her 
lumber  is  not  sold  at  the  plunderer's  price  which 
obtains  in  the  United  States,  but  which  will  soon 
cease  as  our  forests  are  largely  exhausted.     Ger- 


136      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

many's  forests  are  valued  at  2,500  millions  of 
dollars,  and  they  yield  a  revenue  of  about  three 
and  one-half  per  cent,  on  this  valuation.  Forest 
culture  is  highly  developed  and  her  forests  are 
guarded  not  only  against  spoliation  but  against 
forest  fires,  there  being  a  well-perfected  organiza- 
tion and  method  of  fighting  forest  fires  in  which 
the  military  takes  an  active  part. 

German  agriculture  is  chiefly  in  the  hands  of 
peasant  farmers  and  of  farmers  of  the  middle 
class.  Of  her  5,500,000  farmers  over  three  mil- 
lions have  farms  of  five  acres  or  less,  while  some 
two  millions  have  farms  of  from  five  to  fifty  acres. 
Some  275,000  own  farms  of  from  50  to  250  acres 
and  only  25,000  have  farms  of  over  250  acres  in 
extent.  Of  the  total  acreage,  the  peasant  farm- 
ers hold  about  6%,  the  next  class  38%,  the  farm- 
ers of  from  50  to  250  acres  30%,  and  the  large 
estates  25%. 

The  distribution  of  land  is  thus  on  a  more 
equitable  basis  than  in  other  countries,  as  the 
small  farmers  are  for  the  most  part  engaged  in 
highly  specialized  gardening  and  small  fruit  rais- 
ing and  have  sufficient  land  for  their  purposes, 
while  the  larger  estates  include  much  forest  land. 

The  general  tendency  is  for  farms  to  become 
smaller  in  size,  so  that  in  agriculture  Germany  is 
not  a  country  for  the  land  monopolist. 

In  addition  to  the  owners  of  lands  there  are 


SCIENCE  OF  GERMAN  AGRICULTURE      137 

large  classes  of  tenant  farmers,  both  private  ten- 
ants and  tenants  of  crown  lands  and  other  large 
holdings,  and  free  laborers  who  form  a  floating 
supply  moving  from  one  part  of  the  country  to 
the  other  as  the  demand  arises,  but  these  classes 
do  not  differ  in  a  social  sense  very  much  from 
the  owners  of  the  land. 

The  great  demands  of  manufacturing  industry 
have,  however,  produced  a  scarcity  of  farm  labor 
in  Germany  as  in  other  countries  so  that  had  it 
not  been  for  her  intensive  system,  resulting  in 
increased  production  without  increase  in  the 
actual  number  of  farm  laborers,  Germany  would 
have  been  in  a  far  less  favorable  position  than  she 
is  to-dav. 

Instruction  in  agricultural  pursuits  is  afforded 
all  classes  of  agriculturists  from  the  laborer  to 
the  manager  of  a  large  estate.  Germany  has 
250  training  schools  and  eight  agricultural  uni- 
versities, attended  by  13,000  pupils  in  the  train- 
ing schools  and  2,000  in  the  universities,  and  in 
addition  she  has  4,500  schools  devoted  to  evening 
instruction,  attended  by  75,000  pupils.  It  is 
through  these  agencies  that  the  leaven  of  science 
finds  its  way  into  the  agricultural  loaf  and  keeps 
her  practice  abreast  of  the  latest  discoveries. 

In  this  brief  sketch  of  the  enormous  agricul- 
tural industry  of  Germany  only  the  leading  fac- 
tors can  be  touched  upon.     Every  paragraph  is 


138      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

indeed  but  a  slight  summary  of  volumes  which 
could  be  written  on  German  scientific  agriculture. 

Only  a  few  lines  can  be  devoted  to  the  com- 
mercial organization  of  agriculture,  though  this 
organization  has  a  tremendous  practical  effect. 
There  are  in  Germany  upwards  of  16,000  savings 
and  loan  associations,  3,500  dairy  associations, 
2,500  purchasing  societies  and  3,000  other  soci- 
eties, or  over  25,000  in  all  devoted  to  promotion 
of  the  interests  of  farmers.  These  societies  varv 
in  numbers  from  small  groups  up  to  15,000  mem- 
bers. These  are  inter-connected  by  central  so- 
cieties, state  societies  and  finally  center  in  the 
German  Board  of  Agriculture  for  the  whole  em- 
pire. 

These  societies  assist  the  farmer  in  every  pos- 
sible way,  technically,  in  disseminating  knowl- 
edge of  all  kinds ;  commercially,  in  purchasing  his 
supplies,  in  lending  him  money  on  his  growing 
crops  and  otherwise,  in  taking  his  products  off 
his  hands  as  rapidly  as  they  are  ready  for  market, 
in  marketing  them,  in  manufacturing  them  into 
higher  forms,  in  disposing  of  by-products;  and 
sociologically,  in  improving  his  opportunities  for 
recreation  and  advancement  in  all  ways. 

They  are  all  mostly  of  a  co-operative  nature 
and  the  middle-man  being  eliminated,  they  secure 
for  the  farmer  the  most  for  his  money  and  the 
most  money  for  his  crops,  as  they  not  only  pay 


SCIENCE  OF  GERMAN  AGRICULTURE      139 

him  the  full  prices  to  which  he  is  entitled  but  if 
profits  accrue,  from  whatever  activities,  they  are 
distributed  in  the  form  of  dividends. 

Such  societies  and  organizations  enable  the 
farmers  in  a  neighborhood  to  purchase  expensive 
machinery  such  as  electric  plows  and  harvesting 
and  threshing  machinery.  Such  machinery  is  . 
used  in  common  and  thus  at  the  lowest  possible 
expense  the  greatest  possible  results  are  accom- 
plished. Electric  plowing,  which  means  plowing 
on  a  large  scale  cheaply,  has  been  a  feature  of 
German  agriculture  for  fifteen  years,  but  no  elec- 
tric plow  has  yet  turned  a  furrow  in  the  United 
States. 

The  use  of  power  machinery  is  further  en- 
couraged by  certain  societies  and  by  the  govern- 
ment by  the  erection  of  power  plants  utilizing 
waterfalls.  Current  so  generated  is  distributed 
over  wide  areas  and  sold  cheaply,  and  if  any 
profit  is  made  dividends  are  paid  to  the  members 
of  the  association.  Farmers  thus  have  their 
power,  light  and  heat  at  cost  when  within  reach 
of  such  a  plant.  This  is  a  great  advantage  and 
enables  crops  to  be  produced  with  the  minimum 
of  expense. 

This  provision  of  cheap  current  enables  the 
installation  of  narrow  gauge  tracks,  which  are 
very  numerous  on  German  farms,  especially  the 
larger  estates,  and  along  routes  to  marketing 


140      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

centers.  A  cheap,  rapid  and  convenient  form  of 
transportation  is  thus  supplied,  saving  the  farm- 
ers the  great  expense  of  hauling  their  products 
to  market  over  the  roads,  as  is  done  in  most  coun- 
tries. 

As  has  been  noted,  German  agriculture  is  really 
a  manufacturing  industry  of  a  highly  specialized 
kind.  The  government  has  co-operated  with  the 
farmers  in  every  possible  way  and  the  farmers 
have  taken  advantage  of  all  the  opportunities 
afforded,  so  that  the  calling  of  the  agriculturist 
is  not  a  makeshift  device  of  a  man  tied  down  to 
the  soil,  but  the  vocation  of  specialists  engaged 
in  a  highly  profitable,  prosperous  and  useful  oc- 
cupation. 

The  prosperity  of  agricultural  life  reflects  itself 
socially,  and  the  close  contact  of  neighbors  and 
the  ease  of  transportation  eliminates  the  isola- 
tion of  farm  life  and  renders  it  far  more  attractive 
than  farm  life  in  other  countries  if  it  indeed  does 
not  put  it  on  a  par  with  the  enjoyments  of  city 
life. 

Other  nations  have  much  to  learn  from  Ger- 
many's agricultural  progress,  and  the  comparison 
which  was  drawn  in  the  opening  chapter  of  this 
book  between  the  German  as  a  tiller  of  a  barren 
soil  and  the  American  as  the  tiller  of  a  rich  soil, 
gradually  becoming  impoverished  while  the  other 
becomes  rich,  will  be  seen  to  be  not  merely  illus- 
trative but  an  absolute  statement  of  fact. 


CHAPTER  XI 

bismarck's  great  policy 

WHEN  Bismarck  welded  the  German 
kingdoms,  provinces,  duchies  and  states 
into  the  German  Empire,  he  did  his 
work  not  so  much  for  military  purposes,  as  has 
seemed  the  spectacular  fact,  as  for  the  purpose  of 
peace;  he  forged  rather  the  plowshare  than  the 
sword,  and  the  underlying  and  fundamental  prin- 
ciple of  his  policy  was  the  perpetuation  of  Fred- 
erick the  Great's  cardinal  maxim,  "I  am  the  king 
of  the  poor." 

This  principle,  however,  is  in  reality  the  guid- 
ing principle  of  American  institutions,  a  govern- 
ment of  the  people,  by  the  people,  for  the  people. 
In  Prussia's  case  it  was  merely  set  in  the  frame 
of  royal  prerogative,  yet  in  that  setting  it  proved 
just  as  potent  as  in  the  republican  setting,  if  not 
more  so,  in  practical  results  for  the  people,  since 
Frederick  and  later  Bismarck  were  able  through 
the  influence  of  their  personalities  and  positions 
to  impress  it  more  upon  the  institutions  of  the 
nation  than  were  the  executives  of  the  American 

141 


142      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

republic.  For  us  it  remains  to  a  certain  extent  a 
theory,  for  Germany  it  is  vital  reality. 

The  duty  of  the  state  towards  its  citizens  is 
more  fully  realized  and  carried  out  by  the  Ger- 
man state  than  by  any  other  of  the  sovereign 
powers.  The  theory  has  been  carried  out  in  prac- 
tice ;  and  Bismarck  in  expressing  the  duty  of  the 
state,  in  putting  into  operation  Frederick's 
maxim,  did  so  in  a  concrete  manner,  in  the  form 
of  a  doctrine  of  the  right  to  work. 

His  policy  in  his  own  words  was:  "Give  the 
workingman  work  as  long  as  he  is  healthy,  assure 
him  care  when  he  is  sick,  insure  him  maintenance 
when  he  is  old.  Was  not  the  right  to  work 
openly  proclaimed  at  the  time  of  the  publication 
of  the  common  law?  Is  it  not  established  in  all 
our  social  arrangements  that  the  man  who  comes 
before  his  fellow  citizens  and  says,  'I  am  healthy, 
I  desire  to  work  but  I  can  find  no  work,'  is  en- 
titled to  say  also,  'Give  me  work,'  and  that  the 
state  is  bound  to  give  him  work?" 

To  opponents  who  asserted  that  such  a  policy 
would  involve  the  state  in  large  public  works  Bis- 
marck replied,  "Of  course,  let  them  be  under- 
taken, why  not?     It  is  the  state's  duty." 

Bismarck's  policy  outlined  in  1884  met  with  the 
approval  of  the  Empire  and  it  has  since  been  fol- 
lowed not  only  without  deviation  but  with  in- 
creasing ardency. 


BISMARCK'S  GREAT  POLICY  143 

The  present  emperor,  William  II,  further 
elaborated  the  policy,  and  he  issued  a  decree  in 
1890  in  which  the  principles  are  laid  down  that 
the  sphere  of  the  government  extends  to  the  regu- 
lation of  the  period,  duration  and  kind  of  work 
in  order  to  maintain  health  and  morals,  satisfy 
economical  wants  and  claims  to  equality  in  law, 
and  that  the  workingman  has  a  right  to  partici- 
pate in  the  regulation  of  matters  concerning  him- 
self, equally  with  the  employer  and  state. 

Bismarck's  proposals  were  in  a  sense  static;  the 
government  was  to  be  prepared  to  do  certain 
things  when  the  worker  demanded  it;  but  Wil- 
liam advanced  the  conception  to  the  point  which 
requires  the  state  to  anticipate  such  demands,  to 
act  in  the  interests  of  the  worker  positively  and  in 
advance,  and  thus  prevent  and  obviate  the  condi- 
tions of  which  he  might  justly  complain. 

The  spirit  of  initiative  thus  exhibited  by  the 
German  government  is  one  of  the  great  factors 
in  Germany's  success. 

The  German  people,  expressing  themselves 
through  their  administrative  machinery,  have 
created  a  system  which  has  the  force  of  a  vast, 
vital  personality. 

The  most  obscure  citizen  has  the  feeling  that 
in  his  extremity,  if  he  comes  to  it,  he  will  not  look 
in  vain  to  his  nation ;  that  if  he  is  sinking  for  the 
third  time,  he  will  not  go  down  clutching  the 


144      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

straw  of  a  classic  theory,  but  will  be  succored  by 
the  practical  hand  of  a  great  people. 

And  in  this  belief  he  will  not  be  disappointed, 
and  neither  will  his  necessities  anticipate  the 
thought  and  preparedness  of  the  government ;  for 
every  eventuality,  consideration  has  been  taken 
and  preventatives  erected. 

The  government,  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave, 
takes  account  of  every  citizen;  it  offers  him  the 
degree  of  education  which  is  suited  to  his  station 
and  his  capabilities,  and  it  sees  that  he  takes  ad- 
vantage of  the  opportunities.  It  sees  that  as  a 
child  he  is  not  employed  except  at  certain  ages, 
and  when  he  is  employed  that  it  is  only  for  certain 
hours  of  the  day,  it  sees  that  he  has  sufficient  free 
time  for  normal  living  and  proper  schooling,  and 
when  he  has  a  trade  or  other  occupation,  it  pro- 
vides an  enormous  system  of  co-operative  em- 
ployment bureaus,  over  700  in  number  through- 
out the  Empire,  under  government  supervision, 
for  bringing  the  workman  and  his  work  together. 

By  this  great  expedient  the  state  so  reduces  the 
possibility  of  the  worker  applying  to  it  directly 
for  work  that  only  a  very  small  proportion  of  the 
unemployed  need  ever  make  such  application,  and 
the  necessity  for  large  governmental  works  to 
give  employment  has  never  arisen. 

The  government  has  come  to  realize,  as  does  no 
other  government,  that  under  modern  conditions 


BISMARCK'S  GREAT  POLICY  145 

the  fact  that  a  man  is  out  of  work  is  often  due  to 
causes  over  which  he  has  himself  absolutely  no 
control. 

It  therefore  makes  every  effort  to  control  such 
causes  itself  and  does  not  hesitate  to  interfere  in 
the  contractual  relations  of  employer  and  em- 
ployee in  order  to  forestall  the  unemployment  of 
the  employee.  It  requires  certain  notice  to  be 
given  of  discharge  and  insures  that  it  shall  not  be 
for  trivial  grounds. 

The  government  looks  most  minutely  into  the 
conditions  under  which  work  is  performed  and 
sees  that  a  proper  working  place  is  provided, 
protecting  the  life,  health  and  morals  of  the  work- 
ers ;  it  regulates  where  deemed  advisable  the  hours 
of  labor,  and  the  observation  of  holidays ;  it  regu- 
lates the  employment  of  minors  and  women;  it 
enforces  fair  dealing  between  employer  and  em- 
ployee in  every  way,  and  as  has  been  noted  pro- 
tects the  minor  employee  in  his  opportunities  for 
education,  and  settles  disputes  proceeding  in  its 
industrial  courts. 

The  United  States  is  the  "land  of  the  free,"  but 
Germany  is  the  land  of  the  industrial  court,  which 
dispenses  justice  for  the  poor  man  in  more  than 
60  per  cent,  of  the  cases  within  a  day's  time,  the 
maj  ority  of  the  rest  within  a  week  and  the  whole 
calendar  within  two  weeks.  There  are  350  of 
these  courts  and  they  handle  100,000  cases  a  year 


146      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

at  slight  expense  to  the  disputants,  besides  dis- 
seminating a  knowledge  of  law  which  tends  to 
greatly  lessen  their  work.  They  are  devoted  par- 
ticularly to  the  cases  between  employees  and  em- 
ployers. 

Outside  of  their  scope,  however,  the  govern- 
ment provides  legal  advice  bureaus  and  legal 
services  free  or  at  nominal  cost  so  that  in  any 
court  the  workman  may  obtain  justice  quickly 
and  inexpensively. 

The  influence  of  the  government  is  felt  in  nu- 
merous and  complex  regulations,  the  enforce- 
ment of  which  is  in  the  hand  of  a  large  body  of 
inspectors  and  none  of  which  are  dead  letters. 

The  fairness  of  the  regulations  is  unquestioned 
and  large  concerns  even  go  beyond  the  letter  of 
the  law  and  seek  in  their  relations  to  their  em- 
ployees to  gain  their  good  will  by  a  more  liberal 
policy  than  that  which  the  government  is  pre- 
pared to  enforce  if  need  be. 

The  effect  of  the  system  is  to  inspire  the  worker 
with  a  sense  of  loyalty  to  the  organization  of 
which  he  is  a  member,  which  is  quite  unknown  in 
other  countries,  particularly  in  the  United  States 
and  England. 

The  German  workman  expects  to  remain  in- 
definitely with  his  concern  and  hopes  to  make  his 
way  in  the  world  by  rising  to  responsible  positions 
in  it.     The  average  American  workman  is  never 


BISMARCK'S  GREAT  POLICY  147 

free  from  the  idea  that  his  job  is  a  temporary  one 
and  that  if  he  is  to  advance  materially  it  must  be 
under  other  surroundings.  Thus  American  in- 
dustries are  crippled  at  the  outset  and  esprit  de 
corps  is  largely  dormant,  if  not  entirety  lacking. 

In  Germany,  as  a  result  of  her  bureaus  of  em- 
ployment and  the  generally  more  secure  tenure 
of  employment  of  the  employed,  during  a  series  of 
seven  years  ending  1910,  the  total  unemploy- 
ment varied  from  a  little  over  one  to  a  little  less 
than  three  per  cent.,  while  during  the  same  period 
in  the  United  States,  based  on  averages  from  sta- 
tistics in  certain  states,  the  unemployment  varied 
from  6  to  28  per  cent. 

That  is  to  say,  in  the  United  States,  roughly 
speaking,  it  takes  a  man  from  six  to  fourteen 
times  as  many  days  to  find  a  job  when  he  is  out 
of  work  as  it  does  in  Germany.  As  the  German 
average  indicates  a  period  of  about  ten  days  un- 
employment in  the  course  of  a  year,  the  American 
figures  would  indicate  from  one  to  three  months' 
idleness. 

Since,  however,  a  large  proportion  are  em- 
ployed continuously,  the  average  idle  time  for 
those  actually  out  of  work  is  much  greater. 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  under  such  circum- 
stances that  emigration  from  Germany  to  this 
country  is  only  about  one-fifteenth  of  its  former 
figures.     The  wonder  is  that  there  is  any  emigra- 


148      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

tion  from  Germany.  In  Germany,  one  person 
in  four  is  a  wage-earner,  in  the  United  States  the 
ratio  is  one  to  two  and  three-quarters.  Thus  a 
much  larger  number  of  persons,  especially  of 
women,  must  work  here.  In  Germany  the  wage- 
earner  retires  ten  years  sooner  than  in  America, 
where  he  usually  drops  in  his  tracks  first. 

When  the  vast  totals  of  privation,  discourage- 
ment, loss  of  health,  hope  and  savings  are  con- 
sidered as  shown  by  the  great  percentages  of  un- 
employment in  the  United  States  even  in  the  best 
times,  the  failure  of  the  government  to  organize 
the  exchange  of  labor  and  employments  amounts 
to  little  less  than  a  national  crime.  It  is  a  sad 
legislative  spectacle,  that  of  continual  struggles 
for  mean  and  petty  partisan  advantages  while  the 
true  interests  of  the  public  are  neglected. 

Germany,  not  content,  however,  with  the  highly 
effective  results  of  the  governmental  policy,  ex- 
periments are  constantly  being  made  looking 
towards  the  establishment  of  insurance  against 
unemployment.  Considerable  progress  has  been 
made  in  this  direction  and  it  will  undoubtedly 
prove  a  settled  government  policy  of  the  future. 

Some  twenty  cities  have  more  or  less  complete 
systems  in  operation,  the  general  principle  being 
that  the  healthy  workman  who  has  had  regular 
employment  and  who  has  contributed  to  the  fund 
shall,  in  the  event  of  loss  of  employment  receive 


BISMARCK'S  GREAT  POLICY  149 

a  certain  stipulated  amount  as  long  as  he  remains 
out  of  work  through  no  fault  of  his  own. 

The  government  employment  bureaus  afford 
such  a  complete  method  of  locating  employment 
that  the  risk  of  unemployment  is  comparatively 
small.  Thus  the  amount  the  workman  con- 
tributes is  correspondingly  small,  and  at  slight 
expense  he  is  accordingly  insured  against  being 
out  of  work. 

Without  government  organization,  the  chance 
of  the  workingman  finding  work  would  be  much 
smaller  and  the  risk  would  be  so  much  greater 
that  he  could  not  afford  to  insure  himself  against 
unemployment.  Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  one 
good  system  breeds  another,  whereas  in  countries 
like  the  United  States  and  England,  where  there 
is  little  or  no  system,  and  the  finding  of  employ- 
ment is  a  haphazard  proceeding,  the  establishment 
of  a  system  of  insurance  against  unemployment 
would  be  chimerical. 

Having  exerted  its  efforts  in  securing  work 
for  the  workman  and  in  keeping  his  employment 
endurable  and  healthful  the  German  govern- 
ment does  not  in  his  age  or  extremity  abandon 
its  workman. 

During  his  whole  life  he  has  been  compelled  to 
contribute  to  sick  benefit  and  old  age  funds,  to 
which  his  employer  and  government  must  also 
contribute,  so  that  whatever  the  eventuality,  it 
will  already  be  found  provided  for. 


/ 


150      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

Compensation  and  benefit  insurance  has  been 
established  in  Germany  since  1881  and  has  from 
time  to  time  been  extended. 

The  principal  forms  are: 

Sick  insurance, 

Accident  insurance, 

Invalid  insurance, 

Invalidity  and  old  age  insurance, 

Maternity  insurance, 

Widows  and  orphans  insurance. 

The  operation  of  this  form  of  insurance  super- 
seded claims  for  indemnity  against  private  em- 
ployers and  substituted  instead  of  a  lump  sum 
for  accidental  injuries,  small  payments  made 
periodically. 

The  enormous  extent  of  this  form  of  insurance 
is  but  little  realized  in  this  country.  In  1910 
there  were  5,700,000  cases  of  sickness  in  which 
insurance  payments  were  made,  1,017,000  acci- 
dent cases  and  1,333,000  cases  of  invalid  in- 
surance. Since  the  beginning  of  the  systems,  the 
sickness  cases  have  aggregated  92,582,000,  the 
accidents  2,273,000  and  the  invalidity  5,060,000. 
The  number  insured  against  sickness  in  1910  was 
13,955,000,  accident  24,154,000  and  invalidity 
15,660,000.  The  total  compensation  paid  out  to 
the  insured  in  1910  was  $180,000,000  and  since 
the  beginning  of  the  system,  2,000  million  dollars. 


BISMARCK'S  GREAT  POLICY  151 

There  is  a  reserve  fund  of  over  500  million  dol- 
lars which  is  invested  in  hospitals,  sick  and  con- 
valescent homes,  dwellings  for  workmen,  sanatori- 
ums,  and  various  other  investments. 

The  importance  of  the  system  towers  above 
even  its  financial  aspects,  for,  on  account  of  its 
partial  administration  by  the  workmen  them- 
selves and  their  contributions  to  it  of  a  substan- 
tial part  of  the  fund,  though  they  have  received 
nearly  half  a  billion  dollars  in  benefits  more  than 
the  amounts  they  have  contributed,  the  qualities 
of  co-operation,  social  conciliation  and  manage- 
ment developed  are  of  inestimable  importance  to 
the  nation. 

The  word  pauper  is  unknown  in  Germany,  the 
insurance  systems  having  given  the  workmen  by 
right  the  assistance  which  in  other  countries  is 
extended  as  a  charge  against  the  public.  This 
feeling  of  securing  against  the  eventualities  of  the 
future  is  a  powerful  factor  in  the  relations  of  the 
citizen  to  the  state  and  to  his  employers,  it  makes 
life  more  livable  for  the  poor  man  in  Germany 
than  it  is  in  any  other  countiy. 

The  enormous  benefits  of  the  system  have  been 
so  apparent  that  it  has  been  adopted  in  other 
civilized  countries  and  finally  also  in  England 
and  to  some  extent  in  certain  States  of  the  Uni- 
ted States,  though  here  still  of  doubtful  possibil- 
ity owing  to  the  barricade  of  the  Constitution. 


152      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

There  is  no  doubt,  however,  that  it  will  come 
finally  to  be  adopted  by  all  the  States  throughout 
the  country.  Had  the  example  of  Germany, 
however,  been  copied  earlier,  the  vast  advantage 
to  workmen  all  over  the  world  would  now  be  a 
reality  instead  of  a  dim  prospect  of  a  dark  future. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE  CO-OPERATIVE  SPIRIT  IN   GERMANY 

ONE  of  the  chief  distinguishing  traits  of 
the  German  character  is  the  spirit  of  co- 
operation or  collectivism,  the  willingness, 
the  desire  and  the  practice  of  accomplishing  re- 
sults through  organization. 

In  addition  to  the  agricultural  societies  men- 
tioned in  a  previous  chapter,  there  are  a  large 
number  of  societies  of  a  co-operative  nature  which 
have  in  view  the  material  interests  of  their  mem- 
bers, Such  societies  are  devoted  principally  to 
the  marketing  of  products,  the  purchasing  of  sup- 
plies and  the  extension  of  credit  to  their  members 
for  building  and  business  purposes. 

In  the  United  States  there  is  an  almost  total 
absence  of  corresponding  societies,  although  we 
have  to  some  extent  organizations  of  lending  so- 
cieties which  assist  members  in  the  buying  of 
property  and  erection  of  buildings. 

The  spirit  of  co-operation  in  the  United  States 
is  largely  absorbed  by  the  various  churches  of 
the  three  hundred  or  more  religions  which  flourish 

153 


154      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

in  this  country  and  by  the  very  large  number  of 
secret  and  benevolent  societies,  in  which  there  is 
an  element  of  fraternity,  and  a  sense  of  duty 
toward  the  member  who  meets  with  misfortune. 

In  seeking  to  obtain  material  advantages,  the 
German  organizations  often  dip  into  politics,  a 
possibility  denied  to  co-operative  societies  in  the 
United  States,  since  the  nature  of  our  govern- 
mental system  is  such  that  more  than  two  political 
parties  of  any  importance  cannot  flourish.  For 
any  special  interest,  such  as  manufacturing,  agri- 
culture, religion,  or  socialistic,  to  exert  political 
strength  in  the  United  States  is  an  impossibility, 
unless  such  an  interest  segregates  itself  in  one 
locality  and  is  in  a  majority  in  that  locality. 
Thus  the  only  real  third  political  party  in  the 
United  States  is  that  of  the  Mormon  church, 
though  there  is  a  slight  socialistic  political 
strength  in  some  few  districts  where  socialists  are 
gathered  together. 

The  German  character  has  the  capability  of  ex- 
pressing itself  through  organization.  The  Ger- 
man is  willing  to  devote  a  certain  amount  of  time 
and  money  to  building  up  a  society  that  will 
serve  his  material  interests  while  the  American 
will  only  devote  his  serious  attention  to  his  own 
immediate  personal  interests.  He  seems  to  feel 
that  he  can  serve  himself  better  by  running  a 
business  of  his  own  rather  than  by  organizing  a 


CO-OPERATIVE  SPIRIT  IN  GERMANY      155 

society  to  serve  the  interests  of  groups  of  mem- 
bers. 

Where  co-operative  societies  have  been  organ- 
ized there  does  not  appear  sufficient  interest  on 
the  part  of  the  members  to  see  that  they  are  run 
properly  and  they  fall  victims  to  mismanagement 
and  graft.  It  is  in  this  respect  that  the  German 
organizations  are  superior,  for  they  are  run  hon- 
estly and  for  the  benefit  of  the  members  who  take 
sufficient  interest  to  see  that  they  are  properly 
conducted. 

The  result  is  that  the  public  is  better  served  in 
Germany  than  in  any  other  country.  Through 
its  purchasing  and  selling  societies  it  largely 
eliminates  the  profits  of  the  middlemen,  which 
are  saved  to  the  public.  On  the  contrary  in 
America,  there  is  a  vast  organization  of  middle- 
men, and  in  some  cases  half  a  dozen  or  more 
profits  have  to  come  out  of  the  goods  between  the 
producer  and  the  consumer. 

This  vast  economic  waste  is  due  to  the 
dormancy  of  the  spirit  of  organization  in  the 
American  public,  and  this  accounts  for  a  very 
material  difference  in  general  prosperity. 

The  spirit  of  co-operation  in  Germany  extends 
through  the  whole  social  structure  like  an  enorm- 
ous and  highly  interwoven  fabric  which  serves  to 
support  every  individual  in  numerous  ways  and 
to  protect  him  from  extortion  and  exploitation  in 
whatever  guise  it  appears. 


156      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

Co-operation  is  encouraged  by  the  government, 
both  by  laws  favoring  organizations  and  designed 
to  insure  their  honest  and  effective  administra- 
tion, and  by  direct  participation  in  one  form  or 
another. 

The  example  of  the  potash  syndicate  is  one  that 
indicates  a  new  development  of  co-operation. 
One  of  the  large  mines  in  the  cartel  or  syndicate 
sought  by  private  contracts  to  monopolize  the 
business.  It  refused  to  re-enter  the  cartel  when 
the  periodical  re-formating  was  due.  The  gov- 
ernment promptly  passed  a  measure  which  forced 
all  the  potash  mines  to  become  members  of  the 
syndicate. 

This  amounted  to  governmental  control,  hardly 
less  vital  in  fixing  matters  of  policy  than  direct 
government  ownership,  and  without  the  invest- 
ment of  governmental  funds.  The  government 
frankly  admitted  the  far-reaching  and  funda- 
mental nature  of  the  step,  but  it  received  the 
support  of  all  parties  and  the  policy  will  doubt- 
less be  extended. 

That  there  was  no  serious  opposition  to  the 
program,  which  was  in  the  interests  of  both  the 
nation  and  of  the  private  members  of  the  cartel, 
is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  propertied  classes  all 
benefit  by  the  operation  of  the  cartels,  while  the 
working  classes,  represented  by  the  socialistic 
party,  which  casts  over  a  third  of  the  votes,  be- 


CO-OPERATIVE  SPIRIT  IN  GERMANY      157 

lieves  that  in  the  multiplicity  and  perfection  of 
organizations  of  various  kinds  important  steps 
are  taken  toward  collectivism  and  the  ultimate 
realization  of  socialism. 

Co-operation  is  thus  favored  by  all  classes  in 
Germany  whatever  the  motive  and  as  the  cartels 
are  under  such  strict  supervision  that  they  cannot 
exercise  the  dangerous  powers  of  the  trusts  in 
America,  there  is  no  trust  problem,  at  a  time  when 
our  whole  social  organization  is  in  a  turmoil  over 
the  struggle. 

Co-operation  is  doing  great  things  for  Ger- 
many. Whether  it  would  accomplish  as  much 
for  America  remains  in  doubt,  for  without  the 
spirit  of  co-operation  the  instrument  must  re- 
main comparatively  valueless.  But  if  Germany 
finds  co-operation  a  valuable  expedient  in  the 
struggle  for  commercial  advantage,  countries 
which  do  not  have  such  an  instrument  and  are  not 
disposed  to  adopt  it,  or  to  learn  how  to  use  it, 
must  suffer  from  the  effects  of  her  competition. 

The  loss  of  British  trade  due  to  German  ef- 
ficiency, largely  the  result  of  co-operation,  has 
provoked  the  war,  and  the  British  are  attempt- 
ing to  do  with  the  sword  what  they  cannot  do  with 
the  instruments  of  peace. 

Would  it  not  be  wiser  to  adopt  the  expedients 
which  Germany  has  found  so  successful  and  of 
which  she  has  no  necessary  monopoly  than  to 
resort  to  the  bloody  arbitrament  of  war? 


158      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

That  co-operation  has  reached  a  high  stage  of 
development  in  Germany  may  be  appreciated  by 
reference  to  the  figures.  There  are  18,000  co- 
operative loan  societies  in  Germany,  2,000  co- 
operative trade  societies,  7,000  co-operative  so- 
cieties of  a  strictly  agricultural  nature,  although 
a  large  number  of  the  others  include  agricultural 
dealings,  2,500  co-operative  stores,  and  some 
2,000  other  societies,  or  over  32,000  in  all. 

The  most  important  societies  are  the  co-opera- 
tive loan  societies  which  number  more  than  2,500,- 
000  members  and  have  an  annual  turn-over  of 
more  than  6,250  millions  of  dollars. 

There  are  two  principal  systems  of  these  so- 
cieties, the  Raiffeisen  and  the  Schulze-Delitzsch, 
but  the  latter  with  only  about  1,000  societies  and 
600,000  members  grants  loans  of  over  1,000,000 
of  dollars  per  annum,  and  is  the  most  important 
single  co-operative  system. 

The  purposes  and  operations  of  the  larger  in- 
dustrial co-operative  societies  for  purchasing, 
manufacturing  and  marketing  the  goods  of  their 
members  cover  a  wide  field,  but  space  does  not 
permit  of  a  detailed  description  of  their  opera- 
tions which  are  of  interest  chiefly  to  manufac- 
turers and  producers,  but  the  purchasing  societies 
known  as  Consumers'  Unions,  which  are  organiz- 
ations catering  to  the  needs  of  the  householder 
are  of  particular  interest  to  the  American  public 


CO-OPERATIVE  SPIRIT  IN  GERMANY      159 

at  the  present  time,  owing  to  the  increased  cost 
of  living  brought  about  by  our  trusts  and  com- 
binations of  jobbers  and  retailers. 

The  largest  consumers'  union  in  Germany  has 
2,500  branches.  Each  branch  serves  the  consum- 
ers of  its  neighborhood.  It  provides  a  market 
house  in  which  a  large  variety  of  goods  may  be 
purchased. 

The  members  make  known  in  advance  what 
their  probable  requirements  will  be.  These  fig- 
ures are  collected  by  the  executives  of  the  union 
who  then  know  in  what  quantities  to  purchase. 
The  figures  of  the  branches  are  transmitted  to 
the  central  body,  and  thus  vast  totals  of  buying 
orders  are  accumulated.  Naturally,  the  best  pos- 
sible prices  are  obtained  when  such  large  orders 
are  to  be  placed,  and  the  union  thus  obtains  its 
supplies  on  the  most  favorable  terms. 

It  issues  periodical  bulletins,  notifying  mem- 
bers when  certain  goods  will  be  in  season  and 
making  suggestions  as  to  purchases  and  methods 
of  cooking  and  utilizing  supplies  which  will  be 
available. 

Meetings  of  the  members  are  held  at  which  a 
committee  is  elected  which  has  the  operating  of 
the  branch  in  charge.  This  committee  appoints 
the  employees  and  managers  and  sees  that  the 
union  is  efficiently  conducted. 

The  union  endeavors  to  sell  goods  as  nearly  at 


160      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

cost  as  possible,  but  should  there  be  any  profit  at 
the  end  of  the  year,  it  is  distributed  in  the  form 
of  a  dividend  just  before  Christmas. 

There  can  be  no  comparison  between  the  re- 
sults of  such  a  system  and  that  followed  by 
American  households  of  patronizing  retail  deal- 
ers. The  American  household  must  pay  the 
highest  price  for  goods  and  be  mulcted  of  profits 
all  along  the  line  from  producer  to  retailer,  with 
no  possibility  of  a  pre-Christmas  dividend. 

The  lack  of  the  spirit  of  co-operation  amounts 
to  a  very  expensive  luxury  for  Americans,  or  in 
another  light,  a  serious  handicap  upon  prosperity. 
There  is  little  doubt  that  with  a  proper  system  of 
co-operation,  every  American  household  could 
support  an  additional  member  with  no  greater 
outlay  than  at  present. 

The  system  is  one  of  the  secrets  of  the  great 
growth  of  the  population  of  Germany.  There  is 
more  and  better  and  cheaper  food.  Yet  America 
can  boast  of  no  such  organizations. 

Modern  civilization  depends  upon  two  princi- 
pal factors,  the  division  of  labor  and  the  aggrega- 
tion of  effort.  That  is,  in  the  process  of  manu- 
facture, each  operation  is  best  carried  out  by  a 
specialist.  Where  a  piece  of  apparatus  is  made, 
there  must  be  pattern  makers  to  make  patterns, 
founders  to  cast,  machinists  to  turn  and  drill, 
finishers  to  finish  and  assemblers  to  put  the  com- 


CO-OPERATIVE  SPIRIT  IN  GERMANY      161 

pleted  thing  together;  then  salesmen  to  sell  and 
special  agencies  to  distribute  the  product.  The 
more  minute  the  division  of  labor  the  cheaper  will 
be  the  product. 

But  to  attain  such  a  division  of  labor  there 
must  be  a  large  aggregation  or  organization  of 
workers,  in  short,  co-operation.  Thus  the  efforts 
of  a  group  of  ten  thousand  workers  in  which  the 
labor  is  highly  divided  and  in  which  the  spirit  of 
co-operation  is  carried  out,  will  produce  a  vastly 
greater  product  than  an  equal  number  of  work- 
ers, each  of  whom  performs  all  the  operations 
necessary  to  make  the  apparatus  and  sell  and  de- 
liver it. 

It  is  the  high  development  of  this  spirit  of  co- 
operation in  which  the  individual  devotes  him- 
self to  his  own  specialized  activity  in  the  process, 
that  has  had  such  a  powerful  effect  upon  the 
progress  of  Germany. 

In  the  year  1912  German  foreign  trade  reached 
a  total  of  4,900  million  dollars  of  which  2,675 
million  dollars  was  in  imports  and  2,245  millions 
in  exports.  Of  the  imports,  2,275  millions  was 
in  food  products,  animals,  industrial  raw  mate- 
rials and  semi-manufactured  products  and  only 
400  millions  in  finished  goods.  On  the  other 
hand,  not  less  than  1,450  millions  of  the  total  ex- 
port value  of  the  2,245  millions  was  in  finished 
goods. 


162      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

Thus  Germany  by  the  activity  of  her  industrial 
processes  in  turning  low-grade  raw  materials  into 
high-grade  finished  products  is  able  to  maintain 
an  increasing  population  upon  a  soil  from  which 
subsistence  cannot  entirely  be  drawn. 

Both  the  necessity  and  the  remarkable  results 
of  co-operation  are  thus  manifested.  Germany's 
necessity,  too,  for  a  market  for  her  products  is 
also  indicated.  When  other  countries  make  war 
and  prepare  to  make  war  upon  her  because  of  her 
winning  fight  in  the  battle  of  commercial  ef- 
ficiency, they  must  expect  the  most  desperate 
of  resistance.  Germany  is  making  war  because 
she  must  and  not  from  choice,  and  the  phrase,  "a 
place  in  the  sun,"  is  a  grim  reality  and  not  a  mere 
figure  of  speech. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE   GERMAN    WOMAN    OF   TO-DAY 

NO  very  clear  idea  exists  in  America  of 
what  the  German  woman  of  to-day  is 
like.  That  Germany  has  made  great 
material  progress,  that  she  is  leading  in  com- 
merce, in  industry,  in  science,  in  invention  and 
in  organization  of  every  kind,  is  becoming  more 
or  less  fully  realized,  but  the  position  of  the  Ger- 
man woman  and  her  relations  to  her  country's 
progress,  what  she  is,  what  she  stands  for,  and 
what  part  she  bears  in  the  increasing  struggle 
remains  unknown. 

To  make  the  position  of  the  German  woman 
clear  it  will  first  be  necessary  to  explain  to  Ameri- 
can readers  some  of  the  social  customs  and  life  of 
the  Germans  of  the  present  day  which  arise  out 
of  economic  conditions  and  which  affect  the  Ger- 
man woman  in  a  way  which  gives  her  a  different 
view  upon  life  and  a  more  commanding  position 
in  her  environment  than  she  is  ordinarily  sup- 
posed to  have. 

To  most  Americans,  the  term  German  woman 
conjures  up  a  middle  aged  housewife,   placid, 

163 


164      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

portly  and  industrious,  and  mother  of  a  large 
family  beyond  which  she  has  no  interests.  This 
has  been  the  conventional  picture  of  the  German 
woman  for  half  a  century  or  more.  It  is  no  more 
representative  of  German  women  of  to-day  than 
the  conventional  picture  of  the  New  England 
housewife  is  typical  of  American  women.  Times 
have  changed  both  in  Germany  and  in  New  Eng- 
land, and  in  Germany  as  in  America,  women 
occupy  such  varied  and  extended  fields  of  en- 
deavor that  a  picture  characteristic  of  German 
women  as  a  whole  is  difficult  to  draw.  The  best 
that  can  be  done  is  a  composite,  and  this  must 
include  women  in  all  the  higher  professions, 
physicians,  teachers,  lawyers,  heads  of  training 
schools ;  women  of  wealth  and  social  position,  the 
great  class  of  the  wives  of  the  bureaucracy; 
women  of  the  theater  and  of  a  certain  superficial 
stylish  life  that  has  grown  up  as  a  result  of  the 
rapidly-increasing  wealth  of  Germany,  the 
women  who  are  officers'  wives,  the  middle  class 
women,  the  women  of  the  rural  districts  of  all 
degrees  of  wealth  and  finally  the  peasant  women, 
the  wives  of  workmen  and  the  large  servant  class 
who  become  the  wives  of  skilled  workmen  and 
small  business  men. 

It  is  obviously  impossible  to  characterize  such 
a  tremendous  contingent  of  humanity  in  a  few 
words.  At  most,  only  a  few  salient  characteris- 
tics of  the  larger  groups  can  be  outlined. 


THE  GERMAN  WOMAN  OF  TO-DAY      165 

The  organization  of  the  family  is  considerably 
different  in  Germany  than  in  the  United  States. 
The  family  is  a  stabler  unit.  The  honor  of  the 
family  comes  before  the  honor  of  the  individual. 
No  matter  what  sacrifice  must  be  made  to 
maintain  its  social  dignity,  that  sacrifice  will  be 
made.  Divorce  means  disgrace.  A  German  of- 
ficer who  is  divorced  or  who  divorces  his  wife  is 
practically  compelled  to  resign. 

Marriage  thus  is  not  so  lightly  entered  into  as 
in  the  United  States,  where  one  marriage  in 
twelve  results  in  divorce. 

But  the  chief  feature  that  differentiates  the 
family  life  of  the  German  from  that  of  the  Ameri- 
can lies  in  the  custom  of  providing  a  dowry  for 
the  daughters  of  the  family.  To  do  this,  the 
family  will  impoverish  itself.  It  is  a  universal 
custom  and  it  has  a  most  profound  effect  upon 
every  phase  of  German  family  life. 

When  the  daughters  of  a  family  reach  the  mar- 
riageable age,  the  dowry  must  be  provided.  A 
German  father  will  employ  a  large  part  of  his 
means  in  the  education  of  his  sons  and  in  the  pro- 
vision of  a  dowry  for  his  daughters.  His  sons  he 
will  educate  for  the  professions.  As  a  long  and 
expensive  training  is  required,  the  sons'  share 
will  probably  be  exhausted  by  the  time  their  edu- 
cation is  completed.  The  share  of  the  daughters 
becomes  their  dowry. 


166      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

On  account  of  the  crowded  condition  of  all 
walks  of  life  in  Germany,  no  young  man,  by  the 
time  he  reaches  a  marriageable  age,  from  25  to 
30,  can  hope  to  have  any  considerable  amount  of 
money  saved.  Nor  can  he  expect  for  a  consider- 
able time  to  make  a  sufficient  income  to  maintain 
a  family. 

It  is  the  universal  expectation,  therefore,  that 
when  he  marries,  his  wife  will  have  sufficient 
dowry  to  materially  assist  in  establishing  the  new 
family  and  to  supply  at  least  a  portion  of  the  in- 
come until,  in  the  natural  order  of  events,  the  hus- 
band's income  increases  to  a  normal  point. 

The  German  young  man  does  not  marry  for 
money  in  the  sense  of  being  a  fortune  hunter,  but 
as  it  is  the  custom  for  all  daughters  to  have 
dowries,  he  does  not  ordinarily  marry  a  girl  who 
has  none,  as  it  would  be  impossible  for  him  to  set 
up  a  family  in  the  proper  manner. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  by  no  means  unusual 
for  wealthy  Germans  to  marry  poor  girls. 

If  the  parents  are  not  persons  of  means,  he  is 
not  expected  to  have  any  money,  for  his  family's 
fortune,  such  as  it  may  be,  is  expected  to  go  to 
make  up  the  dowries  of  his  sisters,  and  it  is  more 
important  for  his  sisters  to  have  dowries  than  for 
him  to  have  money,  as  it  is  expected  that  he  will 
marry  some  other  fellow's  sister  who  has  a  dowry. 

This  seems  a  very  unromantic  and  prosaic,  not 


THE  GERMAN  WOMAN  OF  TO-DAY      167 

to  say  mercenary  proceeding,  to  the  American, 
but  as  a  practical  matter,  it  is  highly  important  to 
the  welfare  of  the  country. 

In  the  United  States  the  father  of  a  family  is 
not  expected  to  provide  his  daughter  with  a 
dowry.  In  fact  a  young  man  who  marries  a  girl 
with  a  dowry  is  rather  frowned  upon  as  a  fortune 
hunter.  The  young  man  is  expected  to  be  able  to 
maintain  the  girl  of  his  choice  in  the  manner  to 
which  she  has  been  accustomed  in  her  father's 
house. 

The  American  young  man,  however,  cannot  do 
this  very  much  better  than  can  the  German  young 
man.  As  a  consequence  the  American  young 
man  delays  marriage  until  he  is  thirty-five  or 
forty  or  even  older,  as  he  neither  receives  any  as- 
sistance from  his  father  nor  from  the  father  of  his 
wife. 

The  American  girl  must,  therefore,  wait  longer 
for  a  husband,  while  the  American  father  not  be- 
ing under  any  social  compulsion  to  either  provide 
for  his  son  or  his  daughter  on  their  marriage  re- 
tains in  his  own  name  his  means  and  the  children 
are  left  to  struggle  along  as  best  they  may,  and 
to  delay  marriage  indefinitely. 

Delayed  marriages  are,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
fatal  to  the  proper  increase  of  a  country.  The 
wealth  of  the  fathers  remains  in  the  bank  or  in 
their  investments,  in  America,  whereas  in  Ger- 


168      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

many  the  father  must  divest  himself,  under  the 
social  custom  of  the  dowry,  of  a  very  large  pro- 
portion of  his  means,  in  order  to  enable  his  daugh- 
ters to  found  families. 

This  system  produces  early  marriages,  and  as 
the  newly  married  couple  start  in  life  with  as  con- 
siderable an  accumulated  capital  as  the  circum- 
stances permit,  they  are  able  to  have  very  much 
larger  families  than  are  possible  to  the  American 
family  in  which  the  husband,  inevitably,  and  the 
wife,  as  a  rule,  are  much  older  at  the  time  of 
marriage  than  in  the  German  family. 

Thus  the  German  system  accounts  for  the 
rapid  increase  in  population  and  consequent 
power  of  the  empire,  while  the  genuine  old  Ameri- 
can stock  is  dying  out  under  the  "romantic"  sys- 
tem prevailing  in  the  United  States.  The  Amer- 
ican system  necessarily  produces  a  greater  de- 
gree of  immorality  and  the  custom  of  remaining 
so  long  unmarried  renders  the  married  state  more 
irksome  and  less  stable  than  where  the  parties  are 
married  earlier  and  may  better  adapt  themselves 
to  each  other  before  their  habits  are  settled. 

The  result  of  the  German  system  is  that  girls 
as  a  rule  are  married  between  18  and  23.  There 
are,  of  course,  a  large  body  of  German  women 
who  adopt  professional  careers  who  do  not  marry, 
at  least  not  early,  but  the  rule  and  custom  is  early 
marriage. 


Street  in  Workingmen's   Colony,   Altenhof. 


Workingmen's  Apartment  Houses,  Nuremberg. 

Annual   rent  for  three  room  house    $47.50  to  $55.00 

Annual   rent  for  five  room  house   $75. oo  to  $96.00 

Annual   rent  for  three   room   apartment    $43.75  to  $52.25 

Annual   rent  for  five  room   apartment     $63.75  to  $68.75 


THE  GERMAN  WOMAN  OF  TO-DAY      169 

The  German  young  man  is  very  much  more 
anxious  to  marry  than  is  the  American,  for  the 
very  obvious  reason  that  he  can  enjoy  the  com- 
forts of  home  life  without  assuming  such  great  re- 
sponsibilities. He,  therefore,  considers  himself 
lucky  to  get  a  wife,  rather  than  lucky  to  avoid 
marriage.  He  is  by  far  less  critical  in  a  sense, 
but  at  the  same  time  he  marries  for  love  just  as 
much,  as  all  girls  have  dowries. 

In  a  practical  sense,  it  is  the  young  woman  and 
her  mother  who,  backed  by  the  dowry,  are  in  a 
position  to  take  their  choice  of  the  marriageable 
young  men.  The  girl  is  therefore  more  of  the 
chooser  than  the  man,  and  she  goes  into  the  matri- 
monial market  practically  as  a  purchaser  of  an 
eligible  young  man  rather  than  as  in  the  case  in 
America  to  secure  a  position  in  life  with  the  only 
asset,  her  personal  charms. 

Unions  are  thus  very  much  more  readily  ef- 
fected, and  wThen  the  young  man  feels  that  his 
suit  shows  signs  of  being  favored  he  quickly 
makes  his  intentions  known  to  the  parents  and  if 
the  possibilities  of  the  dowry  and  his  own  income 
will  meet  the  prospective  expenses  of  the  family 
no  further  delay  is  necessary. 

Although  it  is  often  a  woeful  strain  upon  the 
resources  of  the  family  of  the  girl,  j^et  as  the  mar- 
riage of  the  daughter  is  in  reality  one  of  the  prin- 
cipal purposes  of  the  family's  existence,  it  is  de- 


170      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

sirable  that  the  family  which  has  practically  ful- 
filled its  function  in  the  social  organization  should 
sacrifice  itself  for  the  benefit  of  the  new  family 
rather  than  that  the  new  family,  as  in  America, 
should  be  prevented  from  being  formed. 

The  fact  that  the  wife  brings  the  dowry,  and  is 
thus  an  essential  contributor  to  the  family's 
foundation,  makes  the  position  of  the  wife  much 
more  secure  in  Germany  than  in  America,  where 
the  husband  supplies  everything  and  where  the 
wife  is  a  luxury  instead  of  a  contributing  partner 
to  the  domestic  organization. 

A  German  husband  owes  a  greater  practical 
moral  duty  to  his  wife  than  does  the  American. 
They  are  more  helpmates  than  in  America,  and 
though  the  German  husband  and  father  lords  it 
over  his  family  in  a  somewhat  autocratic  way,  or 
so  it  would  seem  to  Americans,  the  wife  accepts 
such  "domination"  with  a  very  tranquil  spirit. 
There  is  more  bark  than  bite  to  the  exercise  of 
his  authority,  and  the  German  wife,  being  in  such 
a  complete  sense  a  partner,  takes  a  very  pro- 
found and  intense  interest  in  the  success  of  the 
family  as  a  family. 

She  is  devoted  to  her  children  and  a  comrade  of 
her  husband,  and  though  she  may  not  exhibit 
the  style  in  dress  and  the  superficial  acquirements 
of  some  of  the  luxuriously  inclined  American 
wives,  who  must  always  seek  in  attractiveness  and 


THE  GERMAN  WOMAN  OF  TO-DAY      171 

in  other  ways  to  make  up  for  the  burdens  they 
lay  upon  their  husbands,  she  is  at  all  times  a 
tower  of  moral  and  social  and  usually  of  physical 
strength  to  the  family. 

There  is,  further,  no  question  of  the  incisive 
discipline  over  the  children.  During  the  years  of 
their  childhood  the  family  has  in  view  the  time 
when  the  daughters  must  in  turn  be  provided  with 
a  dowry  and  the  sons  with  a  professional  educa- 
tion, and  the  sacrifices  which  must  be  made  for 
them  entitle  the  parents  to  exercise  such  a  disci- 
pline, and  the  prospect  of  the  benefits  which  they 
are  to  derive  from  the  family  cannot  fail  to  have 
its  influence  in  bending  the  children  to  that  disci- 
pline, even  if  the  German  character  was  not  one 
that  recognized  discipline  as  an  essential  attribute 
to  success. 

The  American  youth  not  expecting  to  derive 
many  benefits  from  his  family,  and  his  family  not 
expecting  to,  or  at  least  not  being  under  the 
social  obligation  of  affording  him  any  particular 
assistance  either  to  himself  or  to  his  sisters,  begins 
to  consider  his  own  interests  at  an  earlier  age  and 
is  inclined  to  branch  off  into  some  endeavor  by 
which  he  can  get  rich  as  quickly  as  possible,  dis- 
regarding the  advice  of  his  elders  in  a  way  which 
a  German  youth  would  never  think  of  doing. 

As  it  is  impossible  for  the  young  people  of  a 
nation,  such  as  the  United  States  as  a  whole,  to 


172      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

gain  the  means  which  is  conferred  upon  their 
class  in  a  countiy  in  which  the  dowry  system  pre- 
vails, as  in  Germany,  the  whole  family  life  suf- 
fers by  comparison  and  the  difference  in  organiza- 
tion is  largely  productive  of  the  difference  be- 
tween the  American  and  the  German  family. 

The  German  woman,  more  secure  in  her  posi- 
tion, becomes  more  of  a  useful  than  an  ornamental 
member  of  society.  She  takes  a  less  obtrusive, 
but  at  the  same  time  a  more  practically  decisive 
role  in  the  national  life.  The  German  woman 
is  the  modern  Spartan.  In  times  of  stress  and 
war,  such  as  Germany  is  now  passing  through, 
all  the  old  Teuton  vigor  and  nobility  of  character 
comes  to  the  front.  The  German  soldier  does  not 
leave  behind  the  woman  who  helplessly  weeps  but 
the  woman  who  inspires  him  to  the  utmost  efforts 
as  she  is  ready  for  the  utmost  sacrifices. 

Though  unadvertised  the  German  woman  is  a 
tremendous  source  of  moral  strength  to  the  Ger- 
man nation.  Her  splendid  qualities  are  so  well 
understood  and  appreciated  that  the  adulation 
and  praise  and  publicity  which  are  given  to  the 
women  of  other  countries  would  seem  a  confession 
of  weakness  if  applied  to  the  German  woman. 

But  it  should  not  be  imagined  that  because  the 
German  woman  devotes  herself  so  much  to  her 
family  that  she  is  by  any  means  an  uninformed  or 
uninteresting  person.     The  women  of  Germany, 


THE  GERMAN  WOMAN  OF  TO-DAY      173 

class  for  class,  have  a  very  much  better  education 
than  the  women  of  any  other  nation. 

The  courses  of  study  in  German  schools  are 
very  much  more  severe  and  as  a  rule  fifty  per 
cent,  longer  than  the  corresponding  courses  of 
the  schools  of  other  countries.  Not  only  are  the 
courses  more  rigorous,  but  the  pupils  take  a 
greater  interest  in  their  studies  and  are  much 
more  eager  to  learn. 

The  German  woman  is  thus  always  very  well 
educated.  In  addition,  she  invariably  has  some 
particular  accomplishment  in  which  she  excels. 
She  is  informed  on  all  branches  of  art,  particu- 
larly music,  and  is  an  appreciative  patron  of  the 
theatre,  music,  painting,  sculpture  and  the  other 
arts. 

The  German  woman  in  dress  is  far  from  the 
conventional  idea  of  a  half  century  ago.  If  she 
has  means  she  is  the  equal  of  the  highest  type  of 
the  Parisienne.  In  any  event,  she  always  dresses 
in  the  best  of  taste  and  insists  upon  a  high  quality 
of  materials.  She  never  overdresses  and  is  never 
loud  or  unconventional. 

It  not  infrequently  happens,  and  to  their 
amusement,  that  German  women  visiting  Amer- 
ica are  not  taken  for  Germans  for  the  reason  that 
they  are  so  much  better  dressed  than  Americans 
suppose  to  be  the  custom  of  German  women. 

The  increase  of  wealth  in  Germany  in  the  last 


174.   SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

generation  has  been  so  great  that  a  wide  variety 
of  luxuries  are  within  the  reach  of  all  persons  of 
any  social  standing  whatever.  This  increase  of 
wealth  reflects  itself  in  dress,  in  the  use  of  auto- 
mobiles and  other  equipages,  in  residences  and 
furnishings  and  the  various  visible  evidences  of 
material  prosperity  which  wealth  usually  takes. 
The  picture  of  Germany  as  a  poor  country  and 
of  the  German  woman  as  a  frugal  and  unadorned 
housewife  is  a  picture  of  the  past. 

Nevertheless,  the  German  woman,  even  of  the 
highest  class,  has  not  lost  her  devotion  to  her 
family.  Her  interest  in  her  household  and  in  her 
children  and  their  education  and  training  remains 
her  most  noticeable  characteristic.  Owing  to  the 
fact  that  there  is  a  very  large  class  of  women  who 
enter  domestic  service,  the  German  woman  can 
afford  to  keep  more  servants  than  the  woman  of 
other  countries,  and  she  consequently  has  greater 
leisure  for  other  pursuits. 

Servants  in  Germany  receive  much  better 
treatment  than  in  America,  and  often  are  treated 
just  as  members  of  the  family.  Their  position 
is  more  that  of  relatives  than  of  menials,  and  this 
contributes  to  the  comfort  of  domestic  life. 

The  German  woman  takes  a  great  interest  in 
outdoor  life.  She  is  given  much  to  walking  and 
to  sports  of  all  kinds  to  a  degree  unimagined  in 
the  United  States.     She  does  not  go  in  much  for 


THE  GERMAN  WOMAN  OF  TO-DAY      175 

contested  games,  but  rather  for  mountain  climb- 
ing, long  walking  tours,  skiing,  tobogganing, 
hunting,  riding,  swimming,  rowing  and  sports  re- 
quiring great  physical  endurance,  and  in  which 
her  costume  is  usually  short  skirts,  knickerbock- 
ers or  jerseys. 

Withal,  the  German  woman,  being  highly  edu- 
cated and  imbued  with  a  sense  of  responsibility  in 
the  rearing  of  her  children,  takes  a  much  keener 
interest  in  public  affairs  than  her  sisters  in  other 
countries.  Although  she  has  not  made  as  much 
noise  about  her  rights  as  have  the  women  of  Eng- 
land, there  is  very  little  doubt  but  that  she  will 
vote  before  they  do.  In  breadth  of  view  and 
progressiveness  and  in  qualities  by  which  she 
contributes  to  the  greatness  of  her  country,  the 
German  woman  is  the  equal,  certainly,  if  not 
greatly  the  superior,  of  the  women  of  other  coun- 
tries. 


* 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE   GERMAN    EDUCATIONAL    SYSTEM 

THE  State,  being  composed  of  its  citizens, 
is  a  resultant  of  their  characteristics.  A 
State  cannot  rise  higher  than  its  source, 
which  is  its  citizens;  but  the  State,  as  does  the 
individual,  controls  its  destiny  in  that  it  can  in- 
fluence its  future,  it  can  form  the  character  of  its 
future  citizens  as  is  deemed  best  by  the  wisest  of 
its  present  citizens. 

The  fate  of  a  nation  thus  depends  on  what  it 
makes  of  the  raw  material  of  its  citizenship  as 
humanity  provides  it.  The  great  progress  which 
Germany  has  made  in  the  last  half  century  is  due 
in  a  large  measure  to  the  influences  which  have 
been  caused  to  affect  the  children  who  have  grown 
up  to  be  the  citizens  of  which  the  nation  is  now 
composed.  Other  countries  have  dropped  behind 
in  the  race  of  progress  because  they  have  not  dealt 
honestly  by  the  material  of  their  citizenship. 

To-day  Germany  possesses  an  educational  sys- 
tem which  is  vastly  superior  to  that  of  any  other 
country,  and  which  is  making  of  the  individual, 
as  he  grows  up,  a  citizen  of  the  highest  type. 

176 


THE  GERMAN  EDUCATIONAL  SYSTEM      177 

The  ultimate  object  of  the  educational  system 
of  Germany  is  to  make  Germany  a  great  nation. 
In  order  to  do  this,  the  individual  must  first  be 
made  a  great  citizen,  great  in  the  sense  of  being 
as  highly  educated  as  the  circumstances  permit, 
and  in  whatever  his  degree  of  education,  being 
imbued  with  patriotism  and  right  principles  of 
conduct. 

The  educational  system  of  Germany  takes  the 
child  at  the  age  of  six  and  carries  him  to  the  age 
of  fourteen,  in  any  event,  in  the  Volkes  Schule, 
before  any  other  activity  is  permitted.  Before 
the  age  of  six,  at  the  option  of  his  parents,  the 
child  may  have  had  a  course  in  the  kindergarten. 

Between  six  and  fourteen,  the  usual  and  proper 
branches  of  study  are  undertaken,  and  in  addi- 
tion the  child  receives  religious  instruction,  as 
Protestant,  as  Catholic,  or  as  Jew,  as  the  case 
may  be ;  physical  education,  in  the  form  of  gym- 
nastic exercises,  as  a  relief  to  his  studies  and  to 
keep  him  in  the  proper  physical  condition,  and 
recreational  education,  that  is,  instruction  in  play. 
His  mind,  his  character,  his  body,  and  his  recrea- 
tional tendencies  are  thus  carefully  trained. 

For  the  most  part,  American  schools  are  one- 
sided, as  compared  with  German  schools;  devot- 
ing themselves  only  to  the  training  of  the  mind. 
The  moral  training  of  the  child  is  left  to  the  more 
or  less  careless  control  of  the  parents,  the  physi- 


178      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

cal  training  and  the  recreational  training  being 
almost  entirely  neglected. 

The  first  principle  of  German  education  is  thus 
an  all-around  education  rather  than  a  one-sided 
one.  The  next  principle  is  the  utilization  of  edu- 
cation, the  German  pupil  being  taught  those 
branches  which  will  be  of  service  to  him  in  later 
life.  The  third  great  principle  is  thoroughness. 
Under  the  most  favorable  circumstances  the 
American  pupil  receives  a  thousand  hours  of 
schooling  per  year,  while  the  German  pupil  is 
given  regularly  1,440  hours.  Thus  the  first  eight 
years  in  German  schools  mean  almost  the  equiva- 
lent of  twelve  years  in  American  schools. 

The  first  fork  of  the  educational  road  comes  at 
the  age  of  nine  years.  Those  who  are  to  receive 
an  extended  education  begin,  at  that  age,  to 
branch  off  from  the  curriculum  of  those  who  are 
to  leave  school  at  14  and  become  artisans. 

At  14,  those  who  are  to  be  artisans  leave  school 
and  begin  work,  but  must  still  continue  to  attend, 
at  certain  hours  of  the  day  or  in  the  evening, 
what  are  known  as  Fortbildungs  Schule,  for  three 
years.  Their  employers  are  not  permitted  to 
deprive  them  of  the  opportunity  of  attending 
such  schools  and  cannot  deduct  pay  for  such 
absence. 

The  Fortbildungs  Schule  are  practical  trade 
and  commercial  schools  and  must  be  attended  by 


THE  GERMAN  EDUCATIONAL  SYSTEM      179 

all.  In  addition,  the  artisan  may  also  attend 
evening  courses  in  the  Universities  and  other  in- 
stitutes in  which  he  may  obtain  a  partial  univer- 
sity training.  These  are  taken  advantage  of  by 
men  of  even  advanced  years. 

Those  who  are  destined  for  a  higher  degree  of 
education,  after  the  age  of  nine,  go  through  the 
Middle  school  until  they  reach  the  age  of  fifteen. 
At  this  point  they  take  an  examination,  which,  if 
successful,  entitles  them,  at  their  own  expense,  to 
serve  but  one  year  in  the  army  instead  of  two  or 
three  years.  This  one  year's  service  in  the  army 
may  be  taken  at  any  time  at  the  pupil's  option 
between  the  ages  of  18  and  26. 

At  fifteen  a  further  differentiation  of  the  cur- 
riculum is  made.  One  branch  leads  to  what  is 
termed  in  America  classical  education,  and  the 
other  to  technical  education.  There  is  a  third 
branch,  not,  however,  directly  connected,  in  which 
the  pupil,  after  fifteen,  may  devote  himself  to 
higher  commercial  training.  The  artisan  may 
also  take  up  this  branch.  This  commercial  train- 
ing includes  bookkeeping,  banking,  domestic  and 
foreign  commerce,  foreign  languages,  principally 
English  and  French,  and  similar  studies. 

After  fifteen,  the  classical  education  is  pursued 
in  the  Gymnasium,  which  corresponds  to  the 
American  High  School  and  Preparatory  Schools, 
while  the  technical  course  is  in  the  Real  Schule 


180      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

and  Ober  Real  Schule.  In  the  classical  course 
Latin  and  Greek  are  studied,  while  in  the  techni- 
cal course  modern  languages  are  studied. 

The  classical  course  leads  to  theology,  juris- 
prudence, philosophy,  medicine,  etc.,  while  the 
technical  course  leads  to  engineering,  chemistry, 
architecture,  mining  and  various  special  depart- 
ments of  science. 

These  courses  are  continued  up  to  nineteen  and 
twenty,  when  the  final  examination  is  taken, 
which,  when  successfully  passed,  entitles  the  stu- 
dent to  enter  any  of  the  classical  or  technical  uni- 
versities, as  the  case  may  be,  although  at  least  one 
year  of  practical  experience  must  intervene  in  all 
the  technical  branches.  The  student  must  be 
twenty  or  twenty-one  years  of  age  on  entering 
the  universities. 

The  student,  instead  of  entering  a  university, 
may  at  this  point  take  up  a  military  career,  lead- 
ing to  a  commission.  Consideration  will  be  given 
to  this  phase  of  education  in  a  later  chapter  to  be 
devoted  to  the  military  system. 

From  the  very  outset  and  continuing  up  to  en- 
trance in  the  university,  much  attention  is  devoted 
to  class  gymnasium  work  and  outdoor  exercise, 
which  serves  to  keep  the  student  in  the  best  pos- 
sible physical  condition.  After  entrance  in  the 
universities,  the  student's  own  interest  in  sports 
of  all  kinds  is  so  keen  that  further  compulsory 


THE  GERMAN  EDUCATIONAL  SYSTEM      181 

physical  training  is  found  unnecessary.  Uni- 
versity sport,  however,  does  not  take  the  intense 
and  semi-professional  aspect  which  it  has  in 
American  universities,  but  is  participated  in  by 
the  students  more  generally. 

The  classical  universities  are :  Heidelberg,  es- 
tablished 1386;  Leipzig,  1409;  Rostock,  1419; 
Greifswald,  1456;  Freiburg,  1457;  Tuebingen, 
1477;  Marburg,  1527;  Koenigsberg,  1544;  Jena, 
1558;  Wuerzburg,  1582;  Giesen,  1607;  Kiel, 
1665;  Halle,  1694;  Breslau,  1702;  Goettingen, 
1737;  Erlangen,  1743;  Berlin,  1809;  Muenchen, 
1829;  Strassburg,  1872;  Boon,  1880,  and  Muen- 
ster,  1902,  founded  as  an  academy  1771. 

The  technical  universities  are:  Berlin,  1700; 
Stuttgart,  1829 ;  Dresden,  1828;  Carlsruhe,  1825; 
Darmstadt,  1836;  Aix-la-Chapelle,  1870;  Bruns- 
wick, 1745;  Munich,  1827;  Hannover,  1831; 
Danzig,  1904,  and  Breslau,  1905.  Hamburg 
and  Frankfort  have  very  recently  been  added. 

The  university  courses  last  from  four  to  five 
years  in  addition  to  which  if  certain  degrees  are 
to  be  obtained,  either  a  post-graduate  course  is 
necessary  or  a  thesis  must  be  prepared,  embody- 
ing the  result  of  original  researches. 

A  highly  valuable  practice  in  the  university 
system  is  that  which  permits  the  student  to  attain 
his  scholarships  in  as  many  different  universities 
as  he  wishes.     After  enrollment  he  is  presumed 


182      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

to  have  reached  the  age  of  responsibility  and  no 
roll  is  called.  He  is  permitted  to  attend  what- 
ever lectures  he  sees  fit. 

The  students  are  allowed  to  go  from  one  uni- 
versity to  another  every  six  months  (semester), 
attending  the  lectures  of  the  most  prominent  pro- 
fessors in  their  particular  branches,  and  they  are 
thus  enabled  to  come  in  contact  with  the  very 
highest  authorities. 

Many  students  do  not  take  the  examinations, 
but  receive  certificates  of  attendance  showing  the 
semesters  they  have  attended.  The  taking  of  the 
examinations  and  the  completion  of  the  univer- 
sity courses,  as  prescribed,  however,  open  the  way 
to  the  highest  positions  in  the  Empire  and  the 
more  ambitious  students  go  through  with  the 
examinations  which  are,  of  course,  of  a  very  rigid 
character. 

In  addition  to  the  universities  there  are  four 
Academies:  those  of  Berlin,  founded  1700;  Goet- 
tingen,  1751;  Muenchen,  1759;  and  Leipzig, 
1846.  These  academies  are  composed  of  mem- 
bers who  are  usually  professors  in  the  universities 
and  are  devoted  to  the  highest  branches  of  re- 
search work  by  experts. 

The  universities  have  extensive  laboratories, 
libraries,  collections,  and  observatories,  which  are 
used  for  research  work  by  professors  and  stu- 
dents, but  the  academies  are  devoted  to  the  ulti- 


THE  GERMAN  EDUCATIONAL  SYSTEM      183 

mate  development  of  the  sciences,  and,  being  sup- 
ported by  the  State,  afford  facilities  for  research 
far  beyond  the  means  of  private  individuals. 
Some  of  the  greatest  scientific  discoveries  are  the 
outcome  of  the  work  of  the  academies.  The  Uni- 
versity of  Darmstadt  has  a  library  of  800,000 
volumes,  and  the  University  of  Berlin,  more  than 
a  million  volumes. 

From  the  kindergarten  to  the  academy,  the 
whole  education  system  is  under  the  direct  con- 
trol of  the  government,  centering  in  the  Ministry 
of  Education  at  Berlin.  There  is  thus  no  con- 
flict of  authority  at  any  point  and  the  whole  sys- 
tem is  worked  out  in  the  greatest  and  most  effec- 
tive detail,  from  beginning  to  end. 

The  educational  system  is  not  only  made  use 
of  by  the  graduates  themselves,  but  contrary  to 
the  practise  in  America,  where  professors  are  ex- 
pected to  devote  their  entire  attention  to  the  work 
of  the  universities,  the  German  professors  are  ex- 
pected to  have  outside  activities  and  to  assist  the 
work  of  commercial  concerns,  where  their  techni- 
cal knowledge  can  be  put  to  practical  use. 

The  work  of  a  prominent  professor  in  a  com- 
mercial connection  adds  to  his  income  and  adds 
prestige  to  the  establishment  which  engages  his 
services.  More  important,  it  serves  to  introduce 
into  the  industrial  lifeblood  of  the  nation,  the 
latest  discoveries  of  science. 


184      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

Either  before  or  after  his  university  course,  the 
student  may  elect  to  take  his  year  of  military 
service.  He  may  enter  any  branch  of  the  sendee 
provided  be  is  able-bodied,  and  if  he  developes 
military  ability,  at  the  end  of  the  year  he  leaves 
as  a  non-commissioned  officer. 

He  must  bear  all  his  own  expenses  for  his  board 
and  lodging  and  uniforms,  and  also  the  expense 
of  his  mount  if  he  enters  the  cavalry. 

The  head  of  the  university  is  the  rector,  who 
holds  the  office  for  one  year,  and  is  elected  by  the 
professors  from  among  their  number.  The  busi- 
ness of  the  various  faculties  is  transacted  by  the 
deans  who  are  similarly  elected  by  the  regular 
professors  of  each  faculty.  The  body  of  in- 
structors consists  of  regular  professors  and  lec- 
turers and  assistants,  in  addition  to  which  are  a 
large  number  of  tutors,  who  are  engaged  them- 
selves in  the  advanced  studies  or  research  work. 

Students  matriculate  at  the  universities  and  are 
enrolled  in  one  of  the  faculties,  and  only  those  are 
entitled  to  fully  matriculate  who  have  certificates 
from  some  one  of  the  nine  years'  course  upper 
schools  (Gymnasium,  Real  Gymnasium,  or  Ober 
Real  School).  Foreigners  must  produce  a  cer- 
tificate of  a  corresponding  standard.  Students 
may  be  enrolled,  however,  in  the  philosophical 
faculty  under  less  exacting  conditions.  In  addi- 
tion to  this,  certain  branches  admit  Hoerer  (lis- 


THE  GERMAN  EDUCATIONAL  SYSTEM      185 

teners)  to  the  lectures,  of  whom  there  are  large 
numbers. 

Women  are  at  liberty  to  take  any  of  the  courses 
open  to  men  in  the  German  educational  system. 
They  take  courses  in  philosophy,  philology, 
mathematics,  architecture,  law,  medicine,  and  in 
fact  all  the  higher  branches.  In  the  universities 
from  5  to  10  per  cent,  of  the  students  matriculated 
are  women. 

In  1911,  4,532  women  attended  the  univer- 
sities, of  which  2,795  were  fully  matriculated  stu- 
dents, while  the  remainder  were  "listeners." 

The  subjects  pursued  by  the  women  students 
during  the  period  just  mentioned  were  philos- 
ophy, philology  and  histoiy,  1,563  students; 
mathematics  and  natural  history,  504;  medicine, 
582;  political  economy,  67;  law,  39;  dentistry,  27; 
pharmacy,  8;  and  Protestant  theology,  5. 

In  addition  to  the  State  educational  system, 
there  are  in  Germany  a  great  many  private 
schools,  though  perhaps  not  as  large  a  propor- 
tion as  in  the  United  States. 

The  private  schools,  however,  are  under  a  strict 
governmental  supervision,  and  the  courses  of 
study  correspond  to  those  of  the  State  system  with 
such  modifications  as  may  be  thought  proper. 
The  private  schools,  especially  the  higher  schools, 
are  largely  attended  by  women,  who,  though  they 
obtain  in  this  way  more  congenial  surroundings, 


186      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

do  not  escape  the  discipline  and  rigor  of  the  gen- 
eral educational  system. 

The  German  educational  system  is  undoubtedly 
the  most  successful  and  thorough  system  of  edu- 
cation  that  has  ever  been  evolved.  It  is  to  the 
perfection  of  the  system  that  Germany  owes  so 
much  of  her  present  greatness.  The  system  is 
one  that  does  not  give  to  a  few  a  very  high  degree 
of  education  and  turns  the  remainder  adrift  with 
but  little  learning,  but  gives  all  an  opportunity 
to  pursue  their  studies  to  the  highest  possible 
point.  Education  is  compulsory  and  free  from 
six  to  fourteen  years  of  age,  except  that  when 
election  is  made  of  the  curriculum  leading  to  the 
higher  branches  at  nine,  tuition  must  be  paid. 

The  tuition  throughout  the  higher  schools  and 
universities  is  very  moderate. 

In  addition  to  the  regular  system,  there  are  a 
large  number  of  technical,  industrial,  commer- 
cial and  trade  schools,  which  are  in  some  cases  pri- 
vate schools  and  in  others  State  schools.  These 
schools  are  devoted  to  all  kinds  of  technical 
studies,  to  music,  literature,  painting,  sculpture, 
and  the  other  arts,  and  to  special  studies  of  vari- 
ous kinds.  Some  of  these  schools  give  degrees. 
They  are  also,  like  the  other  private  schools, 
under  strict  governmental  supervision. 

The  unrivaled  results  of  the  German  educa- 
tional system  are  indicated  in  one  direction,  by  the 


THE  GERMAN  EDUCATIONAL  SYSTEM      187 

statistics  of  illiteracy  in  the  leading  nations  of  the 
world. 

The  number  of  illiterates  per  10,000  of  popula- 
tion is  as  follows : 

Russia 6,170  in  10,000,  or  61.7% 

Italy    3,130  in   10,000,  or  31.3% 

Austria-Hungary   ...2,570  in   10,000,  or  25.7% 

Belgium    1,020  in   10,000,  or  10.2% 

United  States 770  in   10,000,  or     7.7% 

France 400  in  10,000,  or     4    % 

Great  Britain 100  in   10,000,  or      1     % 

Denmark 20  in   10,000,  or  1/5  of  1% 

Sweden 10  in   10,000,  or  1/10  of  1% 

Germany 5  in   10,000,  or  1/20  of  1% 

Thus  it  appears  that  proportionately  there  are 
twenty  times  as  many  illiterates  in  Great  Britain, 
eighty  times  as  many  in  France,  and  one  hundred 
and  fifty-four  times  as  many  in  the  United  States, 
as  in  Germany. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE   GERMAN   ARMY   AS   A  NATIONAL 
BACKBONE 

THE  true  relation  of  the  German  military 
system  to  German  progress  is  but  little 
understood  by  the  rest  of  the  world,  one 
evidence  of  which  is  seen  in  the  spectacle  of  num- 
bers of  uniformed  persons  of  prominence  con- 
stantly assailing  it  and  deploring  the  supposed 
burden  which  Germany  thus  places  upon  herself. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  German  army  is  the 
very  backbone  of  German  progress.  It  is  the 
keynote  in  the  administrative  government  of 
Germany,  and  the  great  preparatory  school  of  all 
official  Germany. 

Germany  is  undoubtedly  the  best  governed 
country  in  the  world.  It  is  the  only  country  in 
which  graft  is  practically  unknown.  And  the 
whole  expense  of  the  German  army  is  without 
doubt  less  than  the  loss  to  other  countries  through 
official  and  semi-official  graft.  Comparatively, 
therefore,  the  German  army  costs  nothing.  In 
addition,  it  is  of  the  highest  value  in  producing 
efficient  and  disciplined  public  servants,  and  in 

188 


ARMY  AS  A  NATIONAL  BACKBONE      189 

making  men  out  of  slouches  in  every  walk  of  life. 
If  there  is  anything  that  every  German  is  proud 
of  it  is  the  military  system,  and  a  true  under- 
standing of  its  workings  and  results  will  convince 
the  unprejudiced  observer  that  it  is  the  greatest 
organization  which  has  ever  been  perfected  by 
the  brain  of  man. 

Heretofore  in  wars,  an  army  has  been  but  a 
small  part  of  a  nation,  but  under  modern  condi- 
tions, the  nation  itself  is  practically  the  army,  so 
that  in  dealing  with  the  German  army  we  are 
really  considering  the  whole  of  the  German  na- 
tion organized  into  one  effective  unit. 

The  present  German  army  had  its  beginnings 
in  the  wars  of  Napoleon.  At  a  time  when  Ger- 
many was  under  the  heel  of  Napoleon,  he  dis- 
regarded Tallyrand's  advice  to  make  Prussia  a 
buffer  state  against  Russia  and  allowed  Prussia 
to  have  an  army  of  42,000  men.  Scharnhorst  and 
vom  Stein  began  at  once  a  system  of  conscrip- 
tion and  after  drilling  the  42,000  discharged 
them  and  drilled  another  and  another  army  until 
within  a  short  space  Prussia  had  an  army  of  some 
200,000  which  later  proved  the  undoing  of  Napo- 
leon. 

That  system  was  further  elaborated  and  built 
up,  the  final  principle  of  rapid  mobilization  being 
due  to  von  Moltke.  To-day  the  German  army, 
on  a  war  footing  of  some  5,200,000,  is  an  organi- 


190      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

zation  guided  by  the  Emperor  and  General  Staff 
and  one  in  which  merit  is  the  only  door  to  prefer- 
ment. The  high  officers  of  the  Army  owe  their 
positions  solely  to  their  ability,  and  not  to  any 
political  or  personal  or  social  influence.  Their 
business  is  purely  military,  and  any  extraneous 
activity  would  at  once  end  their  usefulness.  A 
striking  proof  of  this  is  seen  in  the  fact  that  upon 
the  outbreak  of  the  war,  no  changes  were  found 
to  be  necessary  in  the  personnel  of  the  General 
Staff,  while  the  enemies  of  Germany  spent  the 
larger  part  of  the  first  six  months  in  weeding  out 
incompetent  higher  officers. 

The  most  vital  principle  of  the  German  Army 
and  the  principle  that  makes  the  army  an  in- 
tegral unit  in  the  administration  of  the  country 
and  at  the  same  time  gives  that  administration 
its  wonderful  efficiency,  is  the  fact  that  from  the 
rank  and  file  of  the  army  are  drawn  all  the  minor 
officials  of  the  empire,  such  as  postmasters,  tele- 
graph executives  and  operators,  railroad  officials, 
and  civil  service  appointees  of  all  kinds.  There 
are  three  million  officeholders  in  Germany. 
They  practically  all  gain  their  positions  through 
efficient  work  in  the  army,  and  accustomed  to  its 
discipline  they  fulfil  their  civil  duties  in  the  same 
thorough  manner.  Thus  the  army  is  Germany 
and  Germany  is  the  army,  and  between  the  public 
and  the  officials  there  is  a  feeling  of  comradeship 


ARMY  AS  A  NATIONAL  BACKBONE      191 

and  mutual  respect  which  makes  graft  and  incom- 
petency in  public  office  an  impossibility. 

To  appreciate  the  working  of  the  German 
army  it  is  necessary  to  describe  in  some  detail  its 
organization,  and  the  proper  understanding  of 
that  organization  is  worthy  of  the  attention  of 
all  readers  who  take  any  interest  in  matters  of 
public  concern. 

All  able-bodied  citizens  between  17  and  23  are 
liable  to  be  called  to  the  colors.  Service  in  the 
infantry  is  for  two  years  and  in  the  cavalry  for 
three  years.  From  18  to  21,  the  German  may 
volunteer.  In  case  he  volunteers  he  may  select 
the  arm  of  service  he  prefers,  whether  infantry, 
cavalry,  artillery  or  other  branch.  In  case  he 
does  not  volunteer,  he  must  report  for  examina- 
tion at  20.  If  he  is  not  then  selected,  he  must 
report  again  at  22  and  again  at  23,  and  if  not 
selected,  he  passes,  unless  wholly  ineligible,  into 
the  Ersatz  ( substitute )  Reserve  without  arms. 

As  an  untrained  reservist  he  is  liable  to  be 
called  upon  in  time  of  war,  in  which  case  he 
must  be  trained  before  going  to  the  front. 

As  Germany  does  not  need,  by  any  means,  all 
of  her  available  able-bodied  citizens  for  the  stand- 
ing army,  some  42  to  43  per  cent,  do  not  serve. 
Those  who  are  not  entirely  fit  physically  also 
escape  service.  But  both  those  who  are  not  se- 
lected because  they  are  not  needed  and  those  who 


192      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

are  not  physically  fit  are  liable  to  a  further  exam- 
ination and  to  service  later  on  in  time  of  war  if 
they  are  needed. 

It  was  from  this  body  of  men  that  the  2,000,000 
volunteers  came  who  appeared  in  the  first  two 
weeks  of  the  present  war  and  but  few  of  them 
were  accepted  by  the  Government  as  the  trained 
troops  were  more  than  ample  for  the  Empire's 
needs,  and  it  is  upon  this  great  source  of  citizen- 
ship that  the  Empire  still  may  draw.  Indeed, 
Germany  has  an  ultimate  strength  of  over  13,- 
000,000  men  who  must  be  reckoned  with  before 
the  war  is  decided. 

The  actual  standing  army  of  the  Empire  at  the 
beginning  of  1914  was  810,000  men  in  arms.  It 
had  shortly  before  been  but  680,000  but  the  three- 
year  law  of  the  French  Government  forced  Ger- 
many to  increase  her  standing  army,  which  she 
did  without,  however,  lengthening  the  term  of 
service,  which,  for  infantry,  remains  at  two  years. 
The  size  of  the  army  is  practically  decided  by 
the  Reichstag  every  seven  years,  as  it  must  ap- 
prove expenditures  without  which  an  increase 
would  not  be  possible. 

The  peace  strength  of  the  French  army  at  the 
beginning  of  1914  was  770,000,  while  the  stand- 
ing army  of  Russia  was  1,200,000.  As  the  popu- 
lation of  France  is  but  two-thirds  of  that  of  Ger- 
many, her  standing  army  is  in  proportion  much 


ARMY  AS  A  NATIONAL  BACKBONE      193 

larger  than  Germany's.  France  and  Russia 
together  have  standing  armies  considerably  more 
than  double  the  standing  army  of  Germany. 

Upon  enlistment  the  common  soldier  serves 
two  years  if  in  the  infantry  and  three  years  if  in 
the  cavalry,  two  years  if  an  artilleryman  in 
charge  of  guns  and  three  years  if  in  charge  of 
horses,  and  from  three  to  four  years  in  the  navy 
depending  upon  maritime  experience.  If  at  the 
end  of  his  time,  he  elects  to  leave  the  army,  he 
becomes  a  Reservist  with  arms,  until  he  is  32 
years  of  age.  During  this  period  he  is  liable  for 
maneuver  service  on  three  different  occasions, 
varying  from  two  to  six  weeks  each  according  to 
the  extent  of  the  maneuver. 

From  32  to  39  the  soldier  who  served  his  time 
becomes  a  member  of  the  Landwehr  (national 
guard)  during  which  time  he  is  liable  for  service 
at  one  maneuver  of  two  weeks.  Except  in  case 
of  war  this  finally  ends  his  active  connection  with 
the  army. 

Able-bodied  men  who  have  never  served  in  the 
army  are  from  32  to  39  assigned  to  the  Second 
Landwehr,  previous  to  which  they  were  the 
Ersatz  without  arms  as  noted.  They  are  not 
liable  for  service  except  in  case  of  war,  and  then 
must  be  trained. 

From  39  to  45,  the  trained  soldier  is  assigned 
to  the  Landsturm  (national  defence).     There  is 


194      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

also  a  second  Landsturm  of  the  untrained  to 
which  may  be  drawn  young  men  from  17  to  20. 
However,  they  are  unlikely  ever  to  come  into  ac- 
tion, and  even  if  they  should,  it  would  be  only  for 
service  in  guarding  property,  railroad  lines  and 
the  like.  They  may  attend  also  to  the  harvesting 
of  crops,  and  to  similar  duties. 

Should  the  common  soldier,  who  becomes  dur- 
ing his  original  two  or  three  years'  service  a  non- 
commissioned officer,  however,  elect  to  remain  in 
the  army  at  the  conclusion  of  his  time,  and  be 
permitted  by  reason  of  his  demonstrated  ability 
and  good  character  to  so  remain,  he  will  be  ad- 
vanced at  the  end  of  from  four  to  six  years  to 
sergeant,  and  at  the  end  of  nine  years  to  Feld- 
webel  or  substitute  officer,  in  charge  in  the  ab- 
sence of  the  regular  officers.  He  does  not,  how- 
ever, in  times  of  peace,  except  in  the  most  excep- 
tional instances,  become  a  regular  commissioned 
officer.  Unless  he  becomes  a  non-commissioned 
officer,  he  must  leave  the  army  at  the  conclusion 
of  his  original  service.  During  his  service  as 
sergeant  and  Feldwebel,  he  occupies  a  position 
of  responsibility  and  has  to  do  with  military  stores 
and  various  administrative  functions  of  the  army. 
These  professional  non-commissioned  officers 
reach  the  highest  degree  of  efficiency  as  fighting 
men.  In  times  of  war  they  gain  commissions  in 
large  numbers. 


ARMY  AS  A  NATIONAL  BACKBONE      195 

At  the  end  of  any  year's  service  they  may  leave 
the  army  either  for  civil  life,  or  to  take  some  posi- 
tion in  the  governmental  civil  service. 

At  the  end  of  twelve  to  fifteen  years'  army 
service  they  may  leave  the  army,  receiving  a  posi- 
tion in  the  governmental  service  and  from  1,000 
to  1,500  marks  in  cash.  The  positions  they  go 
into  are  in  the  postal  service,  in  the  state-owned 
railroads  and  telegraphs,  in  the  police,  and  in  the 
various  bureaus  throughout  the  administrative 
service  of  the  Empire. 

As  a  special  stimulus  to  industry  and  the  arts, 
those  who  quit  school  at  14,  if  they  attain  special 
excellence  in  their  callings,  are  permitted,  if  they 
are  able-bodied,  to  volunteer  for  one  vear's  serv- 
ice  instead  of  being  called  to  the  colors  compul- 
sorily. 

They  must  first  pass  a  state  examination,  in 
their  respective  branches,  and  if  successful,  if 
they  are  without  means,  the  Government  accepts 
them  for  the  one-year  service  at  its  own  expense. 
If  they  have  means,  they  are  permitted  to  serve 
at  their  expense,  to  which  a  certain  prestige  at- 
taches. 

The  expert  examination  is  a  rigid  one  as  re- 
spects the  vocational  skill  of  the  applicant. 
Otherwise  it  presents  no  difficulties.  All  classes 
may  take  the  examination  but  it  is  more  especially 
taken  advantage   of  by   artisans  who  produce 


196      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

works  of  artistic  handicraft,  by  musicians  of  all 
kinds,  by  painters,  sculptors  and  other  artists, 
architects,  engineers,  electricians,  carpenters, 
wood  and  stone  workers,  and  skilled  workers  in 
various  lines. 

After  45  years  of  public  service  (including 
military  service)  the  professional  under-officer 
retires  with  a  pension  of  75  per  cent,  of  his  salary, 
and  if  he  retires  sooner  for  each  year  short  of 
forty-five,  his  pension  is  one  forty-fifth  smaller. 

The  common  soldier  on  entering  the  army, 
having  previously  quit  school  at  14,  may  look  for- 
ward to  a  very  desirable  career  if  he  has  the 
requisite  ability.  Although  at  a  distant  social 
disadvantage  as  compared  with  the  highly 
trained  professional  army  officer  who  reaches  the 
very  highest  positions,  he  is  nevertheless  much 
better  off  than  his  comrade  who  leaves  the  army 
at  the  end  of  two  years  and  returns  to  the  life  of 
the  artisan.  The  army  thus  holds  a  possible 
career  for  every  one  who  enters  it,  in  whatever 
capacity.  In  this,  it  is  vastly  different  from  the 
American  army  in  which  the  private  soldier,  ex- 
cept in  the  extremely  rare  event  of  becoming  a 
commissioned  officer,  has  nothing  whatever  to 
look  forward  to. 

The  training  of  the  officers  of  the  German 
army  is  along  considerably  different  lines.  Pro- 
fessional officers  must  have  certain  financial  re- 


ARMY  AS  A  NATIONAL  BACKBONE      197 

sources,  as  their  education  begins  to  be  specialized 
from  the  age  of  13  to  14,  when  at  the  conclusion 
of  the  Volkes  Schule,  they  enter,  instead  of  the 
Gymnasium  or  the  Real  Schule,  the  Cadet  Schule, 
where  they  continue  their  studies  as  cadets  until 
they  reach  the  age  of  19  or  20. 

During  this  period  thejr  study  such  branches 
as  will  fit  them  for  their  future  careers  as  officers 
of  the  army. 

At  the  end  of  the  course  at  the  Cadet  Schule 
they  serve  for  nine  months  on  garrison  duty,  as 
non-commissioned  officers  and  a  year  as  officer- 
aspirants,  after  which  they  enter  the  Kriegs 
Schule  or  War  College  for  another  year. 

At  the  conclusion  of  their  studies  in  the  War 
College  they  serve  for  one  month  as  officers,  in  a 
sense  on  probation,  after  which  they  are  duly 
elected  officers  by  their  fellow  officers. 

As  second  lieutenant  (commissioned  officer) 
the  German  officer  serves  seven  years,  and  as  first 
lieutenant  six  years,  after  which  he  becomes 
major,  colonel,  brigade  commander,  etc.,  rising 
in  the  scale  in  accordance  with  his  abilities 
through  the  corp  staff  and  finally  to  the  top  of 
the  ladder  in  the  general  staff. 

The  larger  part  of  the  officers  of  the  army  thus 
come  through  the  Cadet  Schule,  and  but  very 
few  through  the  rank  and  file.  There  is,  how- 
ever, still  another  avenue  to  the  profession  of 


198      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

army  officer,  and  that  is  through  the  Gymnasium 
or  Real  Schule.  At  the  end  of  this  period,  if 
the  student  desires  to  take  up  an  army  career  he 
volunteers.  He  then  serves  one  year  in  the  army 
at  his  own  expense  and  if  in  the  cavalry  arm,  he 
supplies  his  own  mount.  If  he  shows  ability,  he 
becomes  at  the  end  of  one  year  a  non-commis- 
sioned officer  and  enters  the  war  college  for  one 
year,  which  places  him  on  the  same  plane  as  if  he 
had  been  a  cadet. 

A  professional  officer  of  either  class,  before 
election  must  show  that  he  has  a  certain  assured 
income,  or  if  he  wishes  to  marry,  independent 
means  of  not  less  than  30,000  marks,  since  during 
his  service  as  an  officer  his  salary  is  comparatively 
small. 

As  a  rule,  the  graduates  of  Gymnasiums  and 
Real  Schules,  even  if  they  do  not  wish  to  take  up 
a  military  career,  desire  to  become  officers  of  the 
reserve,  as  this  gives  them  an  enviable  social 
standing.  This  is  often  also  the  case  with  busi- 
ness men  who  do  not  desire  to  take  the  university 
courses. 

Those  who  take  the  university  courses  in  almost 
all  cases  desire  to  become  officers  of  reserves. 
They  volunteer,  serve  one  year  at  their  own  ex- 
pense and  may  become  non-commissioned  officers 
at  the  end  of  the  year.  This  year  may  be  at  any 
time  not  later  than  the  26th  year  of  age. 


ARMY  AS  A  NATIONAL  BACKBONE      199 

The  one-year  volunteer  enjoys  a  certain  dis- 
tinction as  compared  with  the  regular  private, 
he  "stands"  in  the  army  rather  than  "lies"  in  it, 
and  he  lives  in  his  apartment  while  the  ordinary 
private  is  in  the  garrison.  He  is  not,  however, 
a  non-commissioned  officer,  and  only  becomes  one 
at  the  end  of  the  year  if  he  shows  the  requisite 
ability,  which  he  usually  does. 

Subsequent  to  his  year's  service  he  is  liable  for 
eight  weeks'  service  once  a  year  for  three  years, 
the  first  time  as  a  non-commissioned  officer,  the 
second  time  as  sergeant,  and  the  third  time  as  a 
commissioned  officer,  provided  he  is  recommended 
by  the  higher  officers  and  is  elected  by  the  other 
reserve  officers  of  his  district.  This  makes  him  a 
second  lieutenant.  He  subsequently  has  to  serve 
thirteen  days  when  he  is  in  the  Landwehr.  In 
case  of  war  he  becomes  a  first  lieutenant  and  his 
rise  thereafter  depends  upon  his  abilities  and  the 
fortunes  of  war. 

This  system  of  reserve  officers  provides  the 
German  army  with  a  very  large  number  of 
trained  men  competent  and  qualified  to  serve  as 
regular  army  officers  in  case  of  war. 

All  these  reserve  officers  are  highly  educated 
and  trained  men  in  all  walks  of  business,  scientific 
and  technical  life,  and  they  form  in  all  respects 
the  reserve  directing  units  of  the  Empire,  just  as 
the  men  who  from  the  rank  and  file  of  the  army 


200      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

form  the  working  units  of  the  administration. 
Thus  when  war  is  declared,  Germany  has  in- 
stantly at  hand  a  highly  trained  body  of  profes- 
sional officers,  a  standing  army  of  the  highest 
efficiency,  a  reserve  practically  as  perfect,  an 
enormous  body  of  reserve  officers,  and  an  enor- 
mous body  of  administrative  executives  risen 
from  the  ranks,  all  co-ordinated,  all  knowing 
just  what  to  do  and  how  to  do  it.  Such  an  or- 
ganization, which  has  taken  a  century  to  perfect, 
certainly  deserves  the  respect  of  the  Empire  and 
the  respect  of  all  mankind. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE   GERMAN    NAVY 

THE  same  principles  of  organization 
which  have  made  the  German  Army  the 
unrivalled  organization  that  it  is,  have 
been  applied  with  even  greater  success  to  the  de- 
velopment of  the  naval  side  of  Germany's  mili- 
tant power. 

The  German  navy  is,  indeed,  vastly  more  of  a 
triumph  of  modern  Germany  than  is  the  army  for 
the  principles  upon  which  the  army  is  based  were 
put  into  operation  over  a  hundred  years  ago,  and 
the  army  is  consequently  much  older  than  the 
navy. 

The  impoverishment  of  the  German  states  as 
a  result  of  the  Napoleonic  wars  and  later  strug- 
gles and  the  fact  that  she  has  but  a  short  coast  line 
and  had  thus  for  a  long  time  little  or  no  oversea 
interests,  prevented  the  development  of  her 
marine. 

Germany  did  not  feel  the  necessity  of  maritime 
development  until  the  pressure  of  population  be- 
came so  great  that  it  was  evident  the  country 
could  not  be  made  to  furnish  enough  food  for  sub- 

201 


202      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

sistence.  In  addition  to  this  growing  peril  was 
the  necessity  of  having  an  outlet  for  its  trade,  and 
these  causes  forced  upon  Germany  the  necessity 
of  a  merchant  marine  and  the  corollary  of  a  navy. 

Germany  did  not  become  a  shipbuilding  nation 
until  within  the  last  generation.  Almost  by 
magic  she  has  overtaken  the  former  master  ship- 
builder of  the  world,  England,  and  today  her 
ships  are  the  equal  if  not  in  most  cases  the  su- 
perior of  the  ships  of  England,  both  in  merchant 
and  naval  departments. 

The  ceaselessly  increasing  pressure  of  popula- 
tion has  kept  most  vividly  before  the  German 
consciousness  the  necessity  of  both  colonies  and 
maritime  development,  and  Germany  has  entered 
and  has  progressed  in  the  maritime  race  as  no 
nation  has  ever  done. 

She  has  brought  to  bear  upon  the  subject  every 
scientific  and  technical  resource  and  these  re- 
sources being  applied  through  the  agency  of  her 
wonderful  administrative  system,  the  unparal- 
leled growth  of  her  merchant  marine  and  of  her 
naval  power  has  been  the  inevitable  result. 

This  has  aroused  the  jealousy  of  England,  so 
long  the  undisputed  mistress  of  the  seas,  who, 
powerless  to  curb  the  growth  of  Germany's  sea 
power,  has  formed  a  military  coalition  against  her 
in  the  effort  to  destroy  by  the  sword  what  she 
could  not  rival  in  the  ways  of  peace. 


THE  GERMAN  NAVY  203 

The  necessity  which  England  originally  had  of 
sea  power,  to  supply  her  inhabitants  with  the  food 
and  materials  which  they  could  not  produce  within 
the  nation's  insular  borders  has  been  the  necessity 
which  has  compelled  Germany  to  seek  sea  power. 
This  present  necessity  of  Germany  is  proportion- 
ally very  much  greater  than  was  England's  neces- 
sity for  at  the  time  England  began  to  develop  her 
sea  power  her  natural  resources  were  much 
greater.  Modern  industry  and  rapid  increase  of 
population  make  the  necessity  of  Germany  to-day 
far  more  acute. 

The  inability  of  England  to  realize  the  logic  of 
events  and  to  accommodate  herself  to  changed 
condition  has  been  the  real  cause  of  the  present 
conflict.  In  it,  the  German  navy  has  already 
covered  itself  with  glory.  England's  is  only 
greater  in  mere  size.  Eventually  Germany  must 
become  a  greater  naval  power  than  England  as 
within  75  years  it  is  estimated  that  her  population 
will  reach  200,000,000.  In  wealth  and  industrial 
progress  she  must  continue  to  increase.  The 
trident  must  finally  pass  from  the  hands  of  Eng- 
land to  those  of  Germany.  When  that  happens, 
and  Germany  becomes  secure  in  her  food  supplies 
and  raw  materials,  and  a  market  for  products  in 
her  own  colonies,  the  world  will  be  a  I  peace  again, 
doubtless  for  centuries. 

The  German  navy,  which  has  been  so  suddenly 


204      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

created  out  of  nothing  and  which  has  accom- 
plished so  much,  enjoys  in  its  organization  the 
same  close  contact  with  the  maritime  industry  of 
the  nation  that  the  army  has  with  the  land  indus- 
tries  and  administration. 

The  principles  of  its  organization  are  practi- 
cally the  same,  so  that  a  briefer  consideration  of 
its  details  will  suffice,  keeping  in  mind  all  the 
while  that  its  organization  parallels  that  of  the 
army  in  the  various  branches  of  service  and  in  the 
incentives  and  rewards  of  efficient  service. 

The  navy  draws  its  recruits  principally  from 
the  regions  along  the  sea  coast  and  along  the  in- 
land waterways  and  industrial  districts.  They 
serve  three  years,  if  they  are  experienced  as  sea- 
men but  for  four  5^ears  if  they  have  had  no  ex- 
perience on  water. 

The  recruits  are  divided  into  two  classes,  those 
that  correspond  to  our  able  seamen  and  our 
mechanicians.  The  seamen  are  those  classes  in  a 
general  way  which  would  have  been  on  the  ships 
in  case  machinery  had  not  been  invented  and  the 
ships  were  still  sailing  vessels. 

The  mechanicians  have  charge  of  the  machin- 
ery of  the  ships  and  represent  the  advance  of  the 
modern  vessel  over  the  wooden  vessel  of  former 
days. 

The  seamen  include  the  gunners,  the  signalling 
corps,  the  navigators,  the  marine  artillery  and 


THE  GERMAN  NAVY  205 

marine  infantry,  cooks,  butchers  and  mess  room 
men  and  the  various  services  of  the  ship.  The 
mechanicians  include  engineers,  electricians, 
stokers,  wireless  operators,  and  similar  services. 
The  two  classes  may,  for  present  purposes,  be 
termed  the  navigators  and  the  technicians. 

At  the  end  of  their  time  of  service,  they  may 
either  return  to  civil  life,  in  which  case  they  usu- 
ally obtain  positions  of  a  similar  character  in  the 
merchant  marine,  or  they  may  remain  longer  in 
the  navy,  in  which  case  they  must  show  sufficient 
ability  to  become  non-commissioned  officers. 

Like  the  common  soldier  in  the  army,  the  com- 
mon sailor  in  the  navy  may  remain  in  the  navy  as 
a  non-commissioned  officer  for  a  total  of  twelve 
years  of  service,  after  which  time  he  may  leave 
the  navy  or  may  obtain  an  official  position  in  the 
merchant  marine  or  public  service  as  will  be  de- 
scribed. 

In  addition  to  the  foregoing  classes  of  men, 
there  is  a  class  that  expects  to  make  a  seafaring 
life  their  career,  and  they  are  permitted  to  enter 
the  navy  at  fourteen  years,  as  "ships-youths." 
From  fourteen  to  seventeen  these  boys  make  a 
special  study  of  maritime  branches  and  from  18 
to  19  serve  as  regular  seamen  or  technicians. 
From  19  to  22  they  serve  as  non-commissioned 
officers  of  the  lowest  grade.  Continuing  in  the 
navy  as  they  show  ability,  they  advance  to  the 


206      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

higher  grades  of  the  non-commissioned  service, 
until  after  twelve  years  from  the  time  of  their 
regular  service  as  seamen  or  technicians,  they 
leave  the  navy  to  take  an  official  position  in  the 
merchant  marine,  private  or  governmental  ship- 
yards, as  mentioned  in  the  case  of  the  regular  re- 
cruit who  remains  twelve  years  in  the  navy. 

These  positions  include  all  of  what  may  be 
termed  the  "working"  service  of  the  merchant 
marine.  The  technicians  become  engineers,  and 
chief  engineers,  electricians  and  boiler  room 
heads  and  generally  occupy  the  best  position  in 
their  lines,  while  the  navigators  become  mates  and 
masters  of  vessels,  and  even  captains  of  ships, 
reaching  finally  such  responsible  positions  as  the 
captains  of  the  great  ocean  liners  of  the  Ham- 
burg-American and  North  German  Lloyd  lines. 
They  may  also  take  the  positions  in  the  govern- 
mental ship  building  yards,  the  navigators  becom- 
ing designers  of  ships  and  superintendents  of 
ship  construction  while  the  technicians  have 
charge  of  engine  making  and  installation  and  all 
the  expert  work  of  the  mechanical  equipment  of 
the  ships,  both  for  the  ships  of  the  merchant 
marine  and  of  the  navy. 

Thus  the  naval  service  leads  to  the  very  best 
positions  both  in  the  merchant  marine  and  gov- 
ernmental service  and  so  there  is  every  incentive 
to  bring  out  the  best  there  is  in  the  men. 


THE  GERMAN  NAVY  207 

In  addition,  the  merchant  marine  is  thus  pro- 
vided with  a  personnel  which  has  had  the  benefit 
of  the  discipline  and  long  training  of  the  navy 
and  its  efficient  operation  is  thus  ensured,  while 
in  case  of  war,  it  all  forms  an  auxiliary  of  the 
navy. 

No  other  country  enjoys  this  efficient  system 
so  mutually  advantageous  to  both  the  personnel 
and  the  service. 

These  highly  trained  men,  in  times  of  war,  may 
even  become  regular  officers  of  the  navy. 

The  naval  reserve  is  built  up  in  the  same  way 
as  the  army  reserve,  and  the  officers  of  the  naval 
reserve  attain  their  positions  in  the  same  manner. 
Thus  the  graduates  of  the  Gymnasium,  or  Real 
Schule  or  the  university  may  volunteer  for  one 
year  in  the  navy  at  their  own  expense.  At  the 
end  of  that  time  they  become  non-commissioned 
officers.  They  are  liable  for  naval  maneuvers, 
the  first  year  for  four  weeks  and  the  second  year 
for  six  weeks,  after  which  they  become  by  elec- 
tion of  other  naval  officers,  fully  commissioned 
officers  of  the  reserve,  liable  for  duty  in  the  case 
of  war. 

The  expert  examination,  as  in  the  army,  fur- 
nishes a  class  of  naval  recruits  who  serve  but  one 
year,  they  being  parallel  to  the  same  class  in  the 
army  as  described  in  the  previous  chapter. 

The  training  of  the  regular  officers  of  the  navy, 


208      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

those  who  expect  to  make  their  careers  in  the 
navy,  begins  as  in  the  case  of  army  officers  at  14, 
when  they  enter  the  naval  cadet  school.  They 
follow  courses  analogous  to  those  followed  by  the 
army  officers,  including  a  trip  around  the  world 
on  a  training  ship  and  at  23  upon  election  by 
other  naval  officers,  they  become  regular  com- 
missioned officers  and  their  further  advancement 
follows  the  lines  of  similar  advancement  in  the 
army. 

The  naval  service  thus  is  in  command  of  highly 
trained  officers,  re-enforced  by  a  large  naval  re- 
serve of  both  officers  and  men,  and  further  by 
the  very  large  and  efficient  middle  class  who  oc- 
cupy positions  from  electrician  to  captain  of  an 
ocean  liner. 

Germany's  vast  system  of  inland  waterways  is 
operated  and  administered  by  men  of  naval  train- 
ing and  all  her  docks,  piers,  governmental  ware- 
houses, supply  depots,  naval  armament  works, 
shipyards  and  all  the  activities  of  the  navy  and 
merchant  marine  are  similarly  served.  The  won- 
derful efficiency  which  results  may  readily  be 
understood,  for  at  every  post  there  is  a  highly 
trained  man  who  is  or  has  been  a  soldier. 

As  in  the  army,  naval  officers  rise  by  merit 
alone.  There  is  no  graft,  influence  or  favoritism 
in  any  form  and  the  whole  system  is  a  perfectly 


THE  GERMAN  NAVY  209 

working  organization  from  top  to  bottom,  under 
absolute  control  and  with  an  esprit  de  corps  not 
surpassed  by  any  organization  in  the  world,  not 
even  that  of  the  German  army,  since  the  navy  by 
the  close  comradeship  incident  to  the  life  on  ship- 
board, the  singleness  of  purpose  and  the  isola- 
tion from  the  distracting  influences  of  surround- 
ing civil  life,  begets  a  feeling  of  brotherhood  not 
possible  to  the  other  arms  of  the  military  system. 

The  navy  is  divided  into  squadrons  analogous 
to  army  corps,  administered  by  admirals  over 
which  is  the  great  general  admiral  staff. 

The  control  of  the  whole  German  military  sys- 
tem lies  in  the  great  general  staffs  of  the  army, 
navy,  transportation  and  allied  departments, 
about  two  hundred  men  in  all. 

The  final  authority  over  all  consists  of  five 
men,  the  Emperor,  the  Chief  of  the  Great  Gen- 
eral Staff  of  the  Army,  the  Minister  of  War,  the 
Minister  of  Railways,  and  the  Chief  of  the  Ad- 
miral Staff,  and  when  they  meet  in  time  of  war 
the  destinies  of  the  empire  and  of  the  world  are 
in  course  of  mutation. 

The  world  is  full  of  critics  of  the  German  mili- 
tary system.  But  a  few  of  them,  however,  know 
anything  about  it,  in  fact,  are  less  well  informed 
on  the  subject  than  the  reader  of  this  brief  sum- 
mary.    But  those  in  Germany  who  know  the 


210      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

system,  know  that  it  is  not  a  burden  on  the  coun- 
try and  far  from  being  a  burden  is  a  great  source 
of  strength. 

The  great  size  of  the  German  army  is  a  source 
of  criticism,  but  Germany  maintains  proportion- 
ately speaking  as  shown  in  the  foregoing  chapter 
a  smaller  army  than  France.  France  has  a  war 
strength  army  of  one  soldier  to  9/4  of  population 
while  Germany  has  only  one  soldier  to  every  13 
of  population. 

America  listens  to  many  critics  of  militarism 
yet  seeks  to  have  the  second  largest  navy  in  the 
world. 

It  is  repeatedly  announced  that  "militarism" 
must  be  crushed,  yet  England  claims  the  "right" 
to  have  twice  as  large  a  navy  as  any  other  coun- 
try. Germany,  however,  does  not  seek  to  main- 
tain twice  as  large  an  army  as  any  other  country. 
Germany  is  in  reality  less  of  a  militarist  country 
than  England,  its  officers  being  men  who  ad- 
vance by  merit  and  not  as  in  England,  members 
of  a  privileged  class  who  advance  by  influence 
and  manipulation. 

The  cost  of  militarism  is  represented  as  a  great 
burden  upon  Germany. 

According  to  the  World  Almanac  of  1914,  the 
estimated  cost  of  maintaining  armies  and  navies 
of  the  principal  nations  of  the  world  for  the  year 
1913-14  is  as  follows: 


THE  GERMAN  NAVY  211 

1.  Great  Britain $448,440,000 

3.  Russia    439,300,000 

3.  United  States 323,800,643 

4.  France    311,002,000 

5.  Germany    294,390,000 

6.  Austria-Hungary   128,800,000 

The  cost  per  capita  for  military  expenses  is  as 
follows : 

United  Kingdom,  $9.90,  France,  $8.00,  Ger- 
many, $4.40,  United  States,  $3.30,  Austria,  $2.40 
and  Russia,  $2.30. 

Owing  to  Germany's  greater  efficiency  she  main- 
tains a  navy  larger  than  that  of  the  United  States 
and  a  standing  army  of  810,000  at  an  expense 
but  one  dollar  and  ten  cents  per  capita  more  than 
that  of  the  United  States  with  a  standing  army 
of  75,000.  In  addition  the  United  States  is 
burdened  with  a  pension  system  involving  expen- 
ditures of  $173,000,000,  or  more  than  60  per  cent, 
of  the  cost  of  Germany's  whole  military  system. 
If  the  military  shoe  is  pinching  any  one's  foot  it 
is  that  of  Russia  with  its  enormous  graft  or  the 
United  States  and  England,  and  also  France, 
but  certainly  not  Germany. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  word  "militarism"  is  a 
bogey  conjured  up  by  Germany's  enemies.  For 
Germany  knows  that  "militarism"  means  effi- 
ciency   throughout    national    life,    team    work, 


212      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

equipment  for  life's  trials  and  duties  for  the  in- 
dividual, and  real  patriotism,  the  willingness  to 
sacrifice  self  to  the  state;  in  short,  it  is  the  su- 
preme expression  of  Germany's  national  life  and 
vastly  more  an  instrument  of  peace  than  an  in- 
strument of  war.  If  other  countries  would  rival 
Germany  they  must  adopt  the  system  which  she 
has  found  so  successful.  Whether  they  will  be 
able  to  do  so  remains  to  be  seen  for  it  is  her 
unique  achievement.  Her  success  is  obtained 
through  co-operation  which  acts  ami  reacts  in 
myriad  circumstances,  and  the  army  is  the  key- 
stone of  her  system. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

why  Germany's  oversea  commerce  has 
grown  so  tremendously 

IN"  the  twenty-five  years  from  1887  to  1912 
Germany's  exports  and  imports  increased 
214  per  cent.,  Great  Britain's  113  per  cent., 
those  of  the  United  States  173  per  cent,  and 
France's  98  per  cent.  Thus  Germany's  com- 
merce increased  more  than  three  fold,  that  of  the 
United  States  increased  two  and  three-quarters 
times,  Great  Britain's  more  than  doubled  and 
France's  almost  doubled.  In  1887  Germany's 
foreign  trade  was  hardly  any  more  than  France's, 
but  it  is  now  more  than  twice  as  much,  and  it  was 
hardly  half  as  much  as  Great  Britain's,  but  is 
now  about  85  per  cent,  of  it. 

Germany's  aggregate  turnover  increased  from 
1,561/4  million  dollars  to  4,912  million  dollars. 
Britain's  from  2,680  to  5,714%  million  dollars, 
and  America's  from  1,457/4  to  3,978  million  dol- 
lars. 

In  1885  a  commission  appointed  by  the  British 
Parliament  made  a  report  on  the  arrested  devel- 
opment of  Britain's  trade.     This  report  found 

213 


214      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

the  causes  to  lie  in  lack  of  technical  and  com- 
mercial development  in  her  workmen  and  mer- 
chants, stubbornness  in  adhering  to  ancient 
methods  of  doing  business,  lack  of  adaptation  to 
different  markets,  ignorance  of  languages,  lack 
of  study  of  special  needs  and  tastes,  in  short  "for 
a  conservative  pride,  which  failed  to  recognize 
facts,  especially  that  the  time  is  past  when  the 
foreign  customer  is  satisfied  to  accept  those 
goods  which  the  English  dealers  say  are  best  for 
him." 

Such  was  the  British  Government's  own  ex- 
planation of  a  condition  which  has  finally  become 
so  acute  as  to  be  one  of  the  principal  reasons  for 
the  present  war.  Germany's  competition  was 
not  then  anything  like  so  keen  or  threatening  as 
it  has  at  length  become,  but  its  true  import  was 
even  then  thoroughly  understood. 

Why,  then,  it  may  be  asked,  when  the  British 
Government  was  fully  aware  of  the  conditions, 
were  they  allowed  to  grow  worse  until  a  war,  in- 
tended to  destroy  Germany's  competition,  be- 
came in  the  opinion  of  the  British  an  economic 
necessity? 

Although  the  United  States  has  grown  almost 
as  rapidly  in  commerce  as  has  Germany,  the  fact 
that  so  great  a  part  of  her  trade  is  in  raw  mate- 
rials gives  her  a  more  favorable  position  in  the 
statistics  than  the  actual  conditions  import.     Our 


OVERSEA  COMMERCE  HAS  GROWN      215 

own  investigators  report  that  our  failure  to  ob- 
tain trade  that  should  more  naturally  flow  to  us, 
is  due  to  conditions  veiy  much  similar  to  those 
found  by  the  British  parliament's  commission, 
and  in  addition  to  the  failure  of  our  merchants  to 
extend  sufficient  credit,  South  American  coun- 
tries, for  example,  requiring  from  six  to  twelve 
months'  time  in  paying  for  goods  while  our  mer- 
chants demand  payments  in  sixty  to  ninety  days. 
Thus  our  banking  customs  which  we  will  not 
modify,  stand  in  the  way  of  the  increase  of  our 
commerce. 

Why  is  it  that  the  German  exporter  adapts 
himself  to  conditions  and  takes  advantage  of 
opportunities,  when  the  Britisher  and  the  Yankee 
do  not? 

The  fundamental  reason  is  that  in  Germany 
what  is  everybody's  business  is  the  Kaiser's  busi- 
ness while  in  England  and  the  United  States 
what  is  everybody's  business  is  nobody's  business. 
Furthermore,  the  Kaiser  stays  on  the  job,  while 
administrations  change  in  England  and  Amer- 
ica, and  our  presidents  being  but  transients  can- 
not support  any  policy  long  enough  to  make  it 
effective  in  practice  even  when  a  sound  policy  is 
adopted. 

William  II  must  be  given  particular  credit, 
far  more  for  the  development  of  Germany's  over- 
sea trade  than  as  a  "war  lord."     Certain  close 


216      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

observers  of  the  Kaiser's  personal  peculiarities 
assert  that  he  is  in  reality  a  first  class  drummer. 

If  this  is  the  case  it  is  evident  that  he  is  stuck 
on  his  job,  and  has  a  penchant  for  keeping  every- 
body else  on  their  job.  He  is  the  commercial 
traveler  of  an  Empire  and  he  has  sold  more  goods 
than  any  man  in  the  course  of  history. 

The  secret  of  his  ability  to  so  influence  Ger- 
man commercial  development  lies  in  the  close 
relations  maintained  in  Germany  between  poli- 
tics and  business.  It  is  a  part  of  the  German 
system  to  see  that  business  is  helped  by  politics 
and  not  as  with  us,  to  have  them  preying  on  each 
other. 

The  government  keeps  a  large  force  of  busi- 
ness prospectors  in  the  field  and  the  world  is  its 
field.  When  a  point  is  found  which  offers  favor- 
able opportunities  for  the  driving  of  a  German 
wedge,  a  full  report  is  made  on  the  conditions. 
After  the  report  is  made,  it  does  not,  as  in  Eng- 
land or  the  United  States,  find  an  honored  place 
in  the  public  archives  to  be  forgotten,  but  be- 
comes a  vital  German  asset.  If  no  German  mer- 
chant is  sufficiently  interested  to  see  more  profit 
for  himself  in  the  new  field  than  he  is  already 
making  in  others,  the  Kaiser  presses  a  convenient 
button  and  some  merchant  has  to  come  forward 
and  in  the  popular  language  of  this  free  republic 
"make  himself  the  goat." 


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OVERSEA  COMMERCE  HAS  GROWN      217 

But  only  apparently  so.  Once  he  has  the 
Kaiser's  intimation  that  the  cause  of  German 
progress  has  been  placed  in  his  hands,  he  "goes 
to  it,"  he  makes  himself  the  point  of  the  wedge 
and  the  German  system  does  the  rest.  Al- 
though he  may  be  somewhat  crumpled  up  in  the 
process,  the  German  wedge  is  eventually  driven 
and  the  government  sees  to  it  in  one  way  or  an- 
other that  he  is  not  eventually  the  loser. 

As  a  rule  he  is  a  very  early  and  substantial 
winner  because  the  government  experts  have 
thoroughly  sized  up  the  situation  and  the  course 
of  events  can  very  nearly  be  determined  in  ad- 
vance. 

It  is  questionable  whether  there  has  ever  been 
an  American  business  firm  encouraged  in  this 
manner  by  the  president  to  go  across  the  sea 
and  open  the  way  for  American  goods.  The 
American  business  'man  is  supposed  to  know 
where  his  opportunities  lie. 

But  the  business  man  the  world  over  does  not 
look  far  ahead.  His  profit  to  interest  him  must 
be  reasonably  close  at  hand.  He  does  not  feel 
inclined  to  undertake  a  risk  now  for  the  hope  of 
profit  for  his  grandchildren.  But  the  German 
policy  is  that  Germany's  sons  and  grandsons  will 
need  the  trade  of  the  future  more  than  the  pres- 
ent generation  needs  it  now,  and  upon  this  long 
view  is  based  the  German  system. 


£18      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

After  the  governmental  investigators  and 
prospectors  have  made  their  report,  a  German 
house  is  established,  then  come  additional  repre- 
sentatives, and  a  number  of  employees  and 
young  men  who  live  in  the  country  and  learn  the 
habits  and  methods  of  the  people.  After  a  time 
they  return  to  Germany  to  the  various  establish- 
ments which  are  to  supply  the  trade.  They 
know  what  is  wanted  and  where  and  when  and 
how  it  may  best  be  supplied. 

Then  come  more  German  houses,  a  German 
branch  bank,  a  German  consul,  more  German 
citizens,  and  within  a  few  years  the  place  is 
saturated  with  Teutonism,  and  a  regular  line  of 
ships  plies  between  the  port  and  Germany. 

This  process  is  carried  out  all  over  the  globe. 
Wherever  the  German  wedge  can  find  a  cleavage, 
German  influence  is  soon  felt,  the  German  lan- 
guage spreads,  the  German  flag  follows  German 
trade,  and  German  trade  follows  the  German 
flag.  German  houses  in  Germany  are  dealing 
with  German  houses  in  the  new  locality  and  the 
latter  in  direct  contact  with  the  public  know  how 
to  adapt  themselves  to  condition  and  to  changes 
in  conditions  as  rapidly  as  they  occur. 

But  all  this  would  not  happen  if  left  to  the 
initiative  of  the  German  merchant  alone.  It  is 
the  German  government  which  sets  the  process  in 
motion  and  sees  that  it  is  kept  in  operation  until 
it  is  strong  enough  to  operate  itself. 


OVERSEA  COMMERCE  HAS  GROWN      219 

But  it  is  not  alone  in  exports  that  the  system 
is  followed.  Germany  is  a  large  buyer  of  the 
world's  raw  materials  and  also  of  manufactured 
products  which  she  does  not  find  it  more  advan- 
tageous to  produce  herself.  Her  purchasing 
agents  are  everywhere.  She  buys  with  the  same 
attention  to  her  interests  that  she  devotes  to  sell- 
ing. 

Germany  is  the  best  customer  that  England 
has  on  the  continent  of  Europe.  England's 
exports  to  Europe  in  1911  amounted  to  349  mil- 
lions of  pounds  sterling  of  which  one-third  went 
to  Germany  and  Austria,  while  of  England's  ex- 
ports to  Belgium  and  Holland  of  74  millions  of 
pounds  sterling,  a  large  part  ultimately  found  its 
way  into  Germany. 

Germany  absorbs  8.5  per  cent,  of  England's 
whole  exports,  while  the  United  States  takes  7.9 
per  cent,  and  France  5.7  per  cent. 

Germany  takes  12.7  per  cent,  of  France's  ex- 
ports, 22  per  cent,  going  to  the  United  States 
and  8.3  per  cent,  going  to  England. 

Germany  takes  14.4  per  cent,  of  the  United 
States'  exports,  29  per  cent,  going  to  Great  Brit- 
ain and  6.7  per  cent,  to  France. 

Thus  Germany  is  the  second  best  customer  of 
France  and  the  United  States.  She  is  the  best 
customer  of  the  following  countries,  taking  the 
proportion  of  their  whole  exports  as  shown: 


220      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

Holland,  52  per  cent.;  Austria,  45  per  cent.; 
Russia,  27  per  cent.;  Belgium,  27  per  cent.; 
Switzerland,  23  per  cent,  and  Italy,  16  per  cent. 

Of  these  countries,  on  the  average,  Great  Brit- 
ain is  the  second  best  customer,  the  United  States 
third  best,  and  France  the  fourth  best. 

Germany's  world  trade  is  second  only  to  that 
of  Great  Britain.  Over  half  of  her  imports  are 
in  raw  materials  and  two-thirds  of  her  exports  in 
manufactured  products.  She  thus,  in  an  inter- 
national sense,  exchanges  her  skill  and  labor  for 
the  raw  material  of  other  countries. 

It  has  been  her  policy  to  extend  her  merchant 
marine  as  rapidly  as  possible  in  order  to  carry 
her  goods  in  German  ships.  The  tremendous 
lead  of  Great  Britain  in  shipping  has,  as  a  result 
of  that  policy,  been  proportionately  reduced. 
In  the  twenty  years  between  1891  and  1911  Ger- 
many's shipping  increased  103  per  cent.,  while 
England's  increased  only  37  per  cent.  In  1891, 
she  had  1,416,300  tons  of  shipping  while  Eng- 
land had  8,933,500  and  France,  786,600.  In 
1911  she  had  2,888,200;  England,  12,240,700  and 
France,  1,325,100.  In  1891  Germany  had  7.4 
per  cent,  of  the  world's  mercantile  navy,  England 
had  46.8  per  cent,  and  France,  4.1  per  cent., 
while  in  1911  Germany  had  10.1  per  cent.,  Eng- 
land 43  per  cent,  and  France,  4.6  per  cent. 

The  relative  position  of  England  has  thus  been 
verv  materially  reduced. 


OVERSEA  COMMERCE  HAS  GROWN      221 

Germany  now  occupies  third  place  in  mercan- 
tile tonnage,  still  far  behind  Great  Britain  but 
not  very  far  behind  the  United  States,  whom  she 
exceeds  in  steam  tonnage.  Germany  has  4,732 
ships  aggregating  3,023,700  tons;  Great  Britain 
20,919  ships  (an  actual  decrease  of  almost  3,000 
ships  since  1885)  with  a  tonnage  of  11,683,200, 
while  the  United  States  has  21,278  ships  with  a 
tonnage  of  4,618,300,  thus  indicating  a  large 
number  of  small  ships,  mostly  coastwise  sailing 
vessels. 

Germany's  position  is  considerably  better  than 
the  figures  seem  to  indicate,  due  to  the  fact  that 
her  vessels  are  large,  modern,  and  speedy  and 
are  able  to  make  more  frequent  trips  than  the 
smaller  and  older  ships  of  other  nations. 

The  progressive  methods  of  Germany  are  ex- 
emplified not  only  in  the  ships  that  fly  her  flag, 
but  also  in  the  facilities  for  shipping  which  her 
harbors  afford,  both  in  a  mechanical  sense  and  in 
matters  of  policy. 

A  striking  example  of  this  is  seen  in  the  harbor 
of  Hamburg,  which  possesses  few  natural  ad- 
vantages, lying  sixty-five  miles  inland,  but  which 
is  the  second  largest  port  in  the  world,  clearing 
in  1912,  $2,000,000,000,  but  $6,000,000  less  than 
New  York.  Hamburg  exceeds  the  three  ports 
of  London  by  100  to  150  million  dollars  annually. 

This  is  largely  due  to  the  very  modern  docking 


222      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

facilities,  as  great  basins  have  been  excavated  and 
piers  of  3,500  to  5,000  feet  in  length  built  and  all 
fitted  with  the  latest  electrical  machinery  for  load- 
ing and  unloading. 

Another  cause  of  Hamburg's  superiority  lies 
in  the  fact  that  it  is  like  London,  a  free  port, 
goods  entering  or  leaving  free  of  duty  or  custom 
inspection.  It  is  thus  one  of  the  world's  great- 
est maritime  clearing  depots  and  ships  can  go 
there  from  any  part  of  the  world  with  the  assur- 
ance that  they  can  find  cargoes  for  other  ports  in 
exchange  for  those  they  bring.  Goods  going 
into  Germany  later  pay  the  stipulated  duties,  but 
Hamburg's  docks  and  warehouses  are  free  to  all 
the  world. 

If  New  York  was  a  free  port,  her  commerce 
would  be  tremendously  larger  than  it  is. 

It  will  be  obvious  from  the  present  rate  of 
Germany's  maritime  growth  that  in  a  reasonable 
length  of  time  she  will  be  the  first  country  of  the 
world  on  the  high  seas. 

To  protect  this  enormous  mass  of  shipping, 
which  is  the  outlet  to  her  manufactures  and  the 
means  of  ingress  to  her  raw  materials  and  part  of 
her  food  supply,  her  navy  is  an  absolute  necessity. 

Yet  the  policy  of  England  is  and  has  been 
ever  since  the  German  navy  began  to  show  signs 
of  life,  to  prevent  its  growth.  England  asserts 
supremacy  on  the  sea.     It  is  a  traditional  policy 


OVERSEA  COMMERCE  HAS  GROWN      223 

and  one  which  she  has  followed  for  centuries. 

During  the  Napoleonic  wars  she  went  into  the 
harbor  of  Copenhagen,  bombarded  the  city, 
killed  women  and  children,  destroyed  the  great- 
est church  in  Denmark; — though  now  she  utters 
loud  cries  when  a  German  shot  by  chance  strikes 
a  French  church; — and  having  the  city  at  her 
mercy,  took  possession  of  the  Danish  naval  and 
commercial  ships  and  towed  them  to  London. 
Yet  at  the  time  she  was  not  at  war  with  Denmark 
but  took  the  Danish  ships  to  be  sure  Napoleon 
would  not  get  them. 

George  Monck,  Duke  of  Albemarle,  head  of 
the  British  navy  in  Cromwell's  time,  asserted, 
"What  does  this  or  that  reason  matter?  What 
we  need  is  a  slice  of  the  commerce  the  Dutch  now 
have."  Following  that  policy,  Holland's  marine 
preeminence  gave  way  before  England's  naval 
power. 

Pitt,  a  century  later,  counted  England's  great- 
est successes  against  France  in  the  seven  years' 
naval  war  between  them  to  be  the  damage  done  to 
the  French  marine. 

England  for  generations  harassed  by  priva- 
teers the  commerce  of  other  nations  such  as  Spain 
and  Portugal.  She  did  an  injury  in  the  Civil 
War  to  the  commerce  of  the  United  States  from 
which  it  has  never  recovered. 

Now  she  has  fallen  afoul  of  the  German  marine 


224      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

expansion,  but  for  the  first  time  encounters  a  foe 
the  very  necessity  of  whose  national  progress  is 
bound  up  with  naval  progress. 

She  considers  it  necessary  to  destroy  the  Ger- 
man navy  and  the  German  marine.  And  she  not 
only  considers  it  necessary  but  profitable  to  do  so. 

The  Saturday  Review  in  September,  1897, 
seventeen  years  ago,  frankly  stated  that  Eng- 
land's prosperity  could  only  be  saved  by  destroy- 
ing Germany.  The  article  foretold  the  great 
progress  which  Germany  has  since  made  in  for- 
eign commerce  and  said,  "If  Germany  were  ex- 
tinguished to-morrow,  there  is  not  an  English- 
man in  the  world  who  would  not  be  richer."  Ad- 
vising an  attack  on  Germany  the  article  contin- 
ued, "A  few  days  and  the  ships  would  be  at  the 
bottom,  or  in  convoy  to  English  ports." 

This  was  evidently  a  smacking  of  the  lips  in 
prospect  of  another  Copenhagen  adventure. 

"Hamburg  and  Bremen,  the  Kiel  Canal  and 
the  Baltic  ports  would  lie  under  the  guns  of  Eng- 
land, waiting  until  the  indemnity  were  settled. 
Our  work  over,  we  need  not  even  be  at  pains  to 
alter  Bismarck's  words  to  Ferry  and  to  say  to 
France  and  Russia,  'Seek  some  compensation. 
Take  inside  Germany  whatever  you  like.  You 
can  have  it.'  " 

The  Army  and  Navy  Gazette  in  1904  re- 
marked, "Before  now  we  have  had  to  wipe  out  of 


OVERSEA  COMMERCE  HAS  GROWN      225 

existence  a  fleet  which  we  had  reason  to  believe 
might  be  used  as  a  weapon  to  our  hurt." 

The  Daily  Chronicle  referring  to  this  article 
and  to  a  speech  of  the  then  Lord  of  the  Admiralty 
Arthur  Lee,  claimed  that  if  the  German  navy  had 
been  destroyed  in  1904<  at  the  time  of  the  Dogger- 
bank  misunderstanding,  with  the  Russian  fleet  on 
the  way  to  Japan,  the  peace  of  Europe  would 
have  been  preserved  for  sixty  years. 

It  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  policy  of  Eng- 
land is  to  destroy  every  threatening  naval  power. 
And  she  might  have  destroyed  the  German  navy 
seventeen  years  ago,  or  even  ten  years  ago,  but 
to-day  the  problem  is  more  difficult.  England 
has  really  waited  too  long  before  beginning  the 
war,  which  as  will  be  seen  has  been  caused  by  her 
determination  that  no  other  country  shall  attain 
any  great  naval  power. 

But  should  she  succeed  in  destroying  the  Ger- 
man navy  now,  there  is  little  doubt  but  that  she 
will  next  move  against  the  United  States,  whose 
increasing  naval  policy  threatens  her.  With  the 
assistance  of  Japan  she  can  destroy  the  American 
navy.  She  assisted  the  South  against  the  North 
during  the  Civil  War,  and  she  aided  in  destroy- 
ing the  commerce  of  the  North.  Her  real  atti- 
tude towards  this  country  was  then  unmistakably 
shown. 

Has  there  been  any  good  reason  since  for  it  to 


226      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

be  modified?  And  why  should  public  opinion  be 
fanned  against  Germany  and  the  German  navy, 
which  does  no  menace  to  this  country,  and  the 
success  of  the  English  be  desired  when  that  very 
success  will  undoubtedly  lead  to  the  ultimate  de- 
struction of  the  American  navy  at  the  hands  of 
England  and  Japan.  In  the  words  of  a  well 
known  humorist,  "The  greatest  friends  America 
has  are  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  oceans,"  but  not 
far  behind  is  the  German  navy,  every  ship  of 
which  is,  in  the  ultimate  analysis,  an  American 
bulwark. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

Germany's  rapidly  increasing  economic 

resources 

THE  wealth  of  Germany  is  derived  largely 
from  her  industries,  from  inventions  and 
modern  methods,  and  from  the  efficient 
application  of  the  labor  of  her  workers.  The 
wealth  of  this  country,  on  the  other  hand,  springs 
more  largely  from  great  natural  resources,  such 
as  mines,  timber  and  rich  soils,  though  we,  too, 
are  beginning  to  find  in  the  properly  directed  ef- 
forts of  the  workers  sources  of  wealth. 

The  German  worker,  after  deducting  his  ex- 
penses and  the  expenses  of  those  dependent  upon 
him,  produces  by  his  work  a  surplus  for  himself 
and  a  profit  for  the  capital  which  employs  him. 
The  margin  of  such  surplus  and  profit  is  in  some 
countries  so  very  narrow  that  the  national  wealth 
increases  but  slowly,  and  but  for  natural  resources 
such  surplus  might  not  be  produced  at  all.  Ger- 
many, however,  shows  a  greater  production  of 
surplus  and  profit  per  worker  than  any  other 
country,  and  thus  the  faster  her  j)opulation  in- 
creases, the  more  wealthy  and  prosperous  she  be- 

227 


228      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

comes.  Thus  the  increase  of  population  in 
Germany  is  a  blessing  and  will  continue  so,  as  it 
cannot  reach  the  point  of  saturation,  the  point 
where  more  population  means  harder  conditions 
for  all,  as  long  as  her  workers  and  processes  are 
more  efficient  than  those  of  other  countries.  As 
long  as  she  can  sell  to  other  countries  cheaper  than 
they  can  make  for  themselves,  she  can  continue 
to  draw  from  others  the  surplus  and  profit  due  to 
her  superior  processes. 

It  thus  does  not  matter  how  much  Germany's 
population  increases ;  indeed,  every  increase  is  an 
added  asset. 

That  this  is  the  case  is  proven  by  the  compari- 
son of  her  wealth  and  resources  at  the  present 
time  with  conditions  only  a  decade  or  so  ago. 

One  of  the  great  pillars  of  modern  commerce  is 
the  production  of  iron  and  steel.  Germany  has 
outstripped  the  world  in  the  rate  of  increase  in 
this  respect  and  she  is  to-day  in  the  second  posi- 
tion, exceeded  only  by  the  United  States  whose 
natural  resources  are  vastly  greater.  England 
was  formerly  in  the  first  place  but  she  has  been 
outstripped  by  both  the  United  States  and  Ger- 
many. 

From  1887  to  1911  Germany's  annual  produc- 
tion of  iron  ores  increased  from  ten  to  thirty  mil- 
lion tons  annually,  but  her  demand  for  ore  is  so 
great  that  in  addition  to  her  own  production,  Ger- 


INCREASING  ECONOMIC  RESOURCES      229 

many  imports  almost  ten  million  tons  additional. 

Between  1887  and  1911,  Germany's  production 
of  pig  iron  increased  from  four  to  fifteen  and 
one-half  million  tons  or  387  per  cent.,  the  United 
States  increased  from  six  and  a  half  to  twenty- 
four  million  tons,  or  368  per  cent.,  and  Great 
Britain  from  seven  and  a  half  to  ten  million  tons 
or  but  30  per  cent.  Germany  passed  Great  Brit- 
ain in  1903  and  now  produces  upwards  of  seven- 
teen million  tons,  while  England's  production  re- 
mains at  about  ten  millions. 

The  world's  annual  production  of  pig  iron  now 
totals  about  75,000,000  tons  of  which  about  one- 
fourth  is  produced  by  Germany. 

Between  1886  and  1910  Germany's  production 
of  steel  increased  from  954,000  tons  to  thirteen 
and  one-half  million  tons,  an  increase  of  1335  per 
cent.,  the  United  States  increased  from  two  and 
one-half  to  twenty-six  and  one-half  million  tons, 
an  increase  of  910  per  cent.,  while  Great  Britain 
increased  from  two  and  one-half  to  six  million 
tons,  or  154  per  cent.  Thus  Great  Britain  and 
the  United  States  were  practically  equal  in  1886 
and  each  produced  almost  three  times  the  produc- 
tion of  Germany,  while  now  Germany  produces 
twice  as  much  as  Britain  and  more  than  half  as 
much  as  the  United  States  with  its  vastly  greater 
natural  resources. 

Germany's  coal  production  increased  three  fold 


230      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

in  the  same  period  and  she  now  produces  one- 
fifth  of  the  world's  coal,  being  as  great  a  producer 
as  England  though  formerly  producing  much  less 
than  half  England's  production.  The  United 
States  has  increased  her  production  of  coal  more 
rapidly  than  has  Germany,  due  to  her  far  greater 
resources  and  now  produces  almost  as  much  as 
Germany  and  England  combined. 

England  has  thus  been  reduced  in  coal,  iron 
and  steel  in  twenty-five  years  from  first  to  third 
place. 

Germany  has  shown  enormous  gains  in  the  ex- 
port of  machinery,  largely  a  manufactured  prod- 
uct of  iron  and  steel.  She  exported  in  1887 
machinery  to  the  value  of  13,200,000  dollars. 
Today  her  exports  of  machinery  total  157,- 
575,000  dollars,  considerably  more  than  1,000  per 
cent,  increase.  Various  kinds  of  coarse  and  fine 
iron  goods  increased  from  24,000,000  to  145,- 
225,000  dollars,  and  coal  exports  increased  from 
19,975,000  to  109,150,000  dollars  and  coke  from 
2,350,000  to  31,600,000  dollars.  Coal  tar  prod- 
ucts such  as  aniline  and  other  dyes  increased 
from  10,625,000  to  33,450,000  dollars  and  arti- 
ficial indigo  1,575,000  to  11,300,000  dollars. 
Exports  of  cotton  goods  increased  from  16,- 
825,000  to  105,400,000;,  woolen  goods  from  44,- 
400,000  to  63,350,000  and  silk  from  4,250,000  to 
47,725,000  dollars. 


INCREASING  ECONOMIC  RESOURCES      231 

These  latter  figures  are  particularly  striking 
when  taken  in  consideration  with  the  figures  for 
the  number  of  persons  employed  in  the  textile  in- 
dustries, which  have  remained  practically  con- 
stant. 

The  home  consumption  of  such  goods  has  been 
increasing  at  an  even  greater  rate,  and  it  is  fair 
to  estimate  that  in  the  past  twentj^-five  years,  the 
producing  capacity  of  Germany's  manufacturing 
industries  has  increased  three  hundred  per  cent. 

Exact  statistics  are  lacking  for  internal  expan- 
sion of  trade  and  industry  but  the  increase  in 
telegraph  and  postal  revenues  furnishes  a  fair 
index.  The  receipts  of  the  postoffice  from 
stamps  and  telegraph  messages  increased  from 
47,500,000  dollars  in  1887  to  196,000,000  marks 
in  1911. 

Banking  also  furnishes  another  reliable  index. 
Bills  of  exchange  increased  from  3,000  million 
dollars  in  1887  to  8,500  million  dollars  in  1912. 
The  total  turnover  of  the  Reichsbank  (state 
bank)  including  checks  and  discounts  increase 
from  19,950  million  dollars  to  103,500  million  dol- 
lars while  the  turnover  of  the  Deutsche  Bank,  the 
largest  private  bank  increased  from  4,525  million 
dollars  to  33,050  million  dollars,  though  a  large 
part  of  this  was  doubtless  due  to  the  progressive 
methods  of  the  bank  and  does  not  represent  the 
increase  of  industiy  as  accurately  as  do  the  postal 
and  Reichsbank's  business. 


232      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

Another  index  of  the  increase  of  wealth  in  Ger- 
many is  shown  in  the  figures  for  consumption  of 
certain  important  articles  of  food  per  capita, 
which  indicate  that  the  German  of  to-day  is  better 
nourished  than  was  the  German  of  twenty-five 
years  ago.  It  may  indicate  also  a  greater  waste, 
but  in  any  event  it  shows  more  leeway  in  the  food 
supply.  The  relative  figures  for  a  number  of 
countries  are  as  follows:  From  1886  to  1906  the 
consumption  of  wheat  and  rye  in  Germany  per 
capita  increased  39  per  cent.,  United  States,  28 
per  cent.,  Italy,  18  per  cent.,  and  Austria-Hun- 
gary, 16  per  cent.,  while  the  consumption  in 
Great  Britain  remained  stationary  and  in  France 
decreased  4  per  cent. 

In  barley,  oats  and  potatoes  Germany's  in- 
crease per  capita  was  70  per  cent.,  39  per  cent, 
and  49  per  cent.,  respectively. 

In  the  consumption  of  meat,  statistics  are  less 
completely  available,  but  indicate  a  present  con- 
sumption of  51.9  kilogrammes  (113  lbs.)  per  cap- 
ita. This  in  1912  is  about  equivalent  to  the  fig- 
ures for  Great  Britain  in  1904.  Between  1890 
and  1904  the  British  consumption  increased  from 
99  to  114  pounds  per  capita. 

There  has  been  in  twenty-five  years  no  increase 
per  capita  in  the  consumption  in  Germany  of 
alcoholic  beverages  or  of  tobacco. 

The  German,  however,  lacks  a  sweet  tooth. 


INCREASING  ECONOMIC  RESOURCES      233 

The  per  capita  consumption  of  sugar  although  it 
has  increased  from  14.9  to  41.8  pounds  per  capita 
from  1885  to  1911,  is  still  far  behind  that  of 
other  countries  whose  increases  have  been  as  fol- 
lows: Russia,  from  8.1  to  22.2;  Austria,  from 
11.2  to  28.6;  France,  from  25.9  to  42.5,  now  equal 
to  Germany;  the  United  States,  from  49.3  to  79 
and  Great  Britain  from  70.2  to  90.4  pounds. 
This  enormous  consumption  of  sugar  in  Great 
Britain  was  the  cause  of  much  concern  to  the 
government  at  the  opening  of  the  war  and  dras- 
tic measures  were  taken  to  provide  for  the  sup- 
ply- 

In  cotton  there  was  an  increase  in  Germany  of 
from  9.2  pounds  per  capita  in  1886  to  13.4  in 
1912. 

These  figures  indicate  that  there  has  been  a 
very  decided  increase  in  the  prosperity  of  the 
German  people  in  the  past  twenty-five  years. 
The  increase  in  France  and  England  even  where 
it  has  occurred  has  been  relatively  much  smaller. 
It  cannot  be  doubted,  therefore,  that  the  Eng- 
lishman especially  has  not  had  such  a  full  stomach 
as  formerly  and  that  a  large  part  of  his  envy 
against  Germany  has  been  produced  by  his  in- 
ability to  maintain  his  hold  on  his  food  supply. 
In  short,  the  German  has  very  cleverly  edged  him 
away  from  the  groaning  board,  so  that  as  nearly 
as  may  be  determined  by  the  figures,  the  Ger- 


234      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

man  of  to-day  is  the  best  nourished  man  on  the 
face  of  the  globe  and  this  does  not  even  take  into 
consideration  the  very  much  greater  proportion- 
ate consumption  of  vegetables  and  fruits  in  Ger- 
many which,  while  difficult  to  reduce  to  statistics 
is  a  matter  of  common  knowledge  to  those  famil- 
iar with  the  diet  of  the  two  countries. 

The  increased  food  supply  has  been  one  of  the 
important  causes  of  the  great  increase  of  the  pop- 
ulation. This  has  worked  in  two  ways,  in  in- 
creasing the  number  of  births  and  in  decreasing 
the  number  of  deaths,  since  with  better  nour- 
ished individuals  the  death  rate  has  of  course  de- 
creased. The  improvements  in  medicine,  too, 
have  had  an  important  bearing  on  decreasing  the 
number  of  deaths. 

In  the  present  territory  of  the  German  Em- 
pire there  lived  in  the  year  1816  25,000,000  peo- 
ple. In  fifty-five  years  to  1871,  the  population 
increased  to  41,000,000  or  16,000,000.  In  17 
years  to  the  accession  of  the  present  Kaiser 
7,000,000  to  48,000,000,  and  in  the  26  years  of 
his  reign  it  has  increased  20,000,000,  to  a  total 
of  68,000,000,  or  considerable  more  than  in  the 
50  years  before. 

The  increase  of  births  over  deaths  in  the  year 
1911  in  most  of  the  western  nations  of  Europe 
averaged  about  9  per  1,000  inhabitants,  though 
in  France  the  increase  was  less  than  1  and  in 


INCREASING  ECONOMIC  RESOURCES      235 

Russia  more  than  17.  In  Germany  the  increase 
was  11.3.  This  favorable  showing,  however,  was 
not  as  good  as  in  1902  when  the  figure  was  15.6, 
which  indicates  that  Germany's  prosperity  has 
produced  a  certain  slackening  of  the  birth  rate,  a 
result  which  is  usually  the  case  where  a  nation  in- 
creases in  wealth,  but  which  has  affected  Ger- 
many to  a  less  degree  than  is  customarily  the 
case.  This  effect  of  prosperity  lies  too  deep  in 
natural  laws  to  be  discussed  here  but  it  is  less  dis- 
quieting for  Germany  than  for  other  countries, 
although  when  viewed  from  the  angle  of  a  com- 
parison of  birth  and  death  rates  it  is  somewhat 
startling. 

From  1871-80  to  1901-10  the  number  of 
births  per  1000  inhabitants,  dropped  from  40.7 
to  33.9,  while  deaths  dropped  from  28.8  to  19.7, 
with  the  result  that  the  birth-excess  increased 
from  11.9  to  14.3,  this  being  due  to  decrease  of 
deaths  more  than  to  the  birth  figures.  From 
1871  to  80,  however,  was  a  post-bellum  period 
during  which  there  is  naturally  a  large  birth  rate. 
Although  the  rate  of  increase  is  not  as  favorable 
as  might  be  desired,  a  comparison  with  the  figures 
of  immigration  shows  in  a  true  light  the  pros- 
perity of  Germany. 

In  the  decade  1881-90  there  were  1,342,000 
German  emigrants  as  compared  with  a  total 
birth  excess  of  5,500,000;  in  the  following  decade 


236      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

there  were  528,000  emigrants  to  7,300,000  birth 
excess,  while  in  1901-10  there  were  but  220,000 
emigrants  (an  average  of  22,000  per  year)  com- 
pared to  a  birth  excess  of  8,670,000.  In  1912 
the  number  of  German  emigrants  was  18,500, 
while  in  1913  it  was  but  13,000. 

The  position  of  Germany  becomes  much  more 
favorable,  too,  when  immigration  is  considered, 
for  since  the  middle  of  the  nineties,  there  has  been 
an  excess  of  immigration  over  emigration.  This 
proves  that  economic  opportunities  have  grown 
more  rapidly  in  Germany  during  recent  decades 
than  the  population. 

Thus  the  opportunity  for  remunerative  em- 
ployment has  increased  faster  than  the  popula- 
tion. At  the  same  time  the  labor-output  has 
greatly  increased,  notwithstanding  the  restriction 
of  the  hours  of  labor,  particularly  in  the  manufac- 
turing callings. 

In  Germany  there  has  been  a  slight  increase  in 
the  total  number  of  wage  earners.  The  censuses 
for  1882,  1895  and  1907  showed  that  the  persons 
employed  in  agriculture,  industry,  trade  and 
transportation  were  35.4  per  cent.,  36.4  per  cent, 
and  39.7  per  cent,  of  the  whole  population  re- 
spectively. 

The  great  industrial  progress  of  Germany  has 
been  marked  by  a  shifting  of  the  population  from 
the  country  to  the  city.     In  1882  in  Germany  18 


INCREASING  ECONOMIC  RESOURCES      237 

per  cent,  of  the  workers  were  employed  on  the 
farms,  while  they  and  their  dependents  consti- 
tuted 42  per  cent,  of  the  population.  In  1907 
there  were  but  15.9  per  cent,  employed  on  the 
farms,  who  with  their  dependents  constituted  but 
28.5  per  cent,  of  the  whole  population.  The  ac- 
tual number  of  farm  workers  increased  from 
8,236,000  to  9,883,000,  but  their  dependents  de- 
creased from  19,225,000  to  17,681,000.  This  in- 
dicates a  smaller  number  of  dependents  and  a 
greater  floating  supply  of  labor. 

In  industry  in  1882, 14  per  cent,  of  the  popula- 
tion was  employed  which  with  their  dependents 
amounted  to  35  per  cent,  of  the  whole  population. 
In  1907  the  persons  employed  in  the  industries 
had  increased  from  6,396,000  to  11,256,000  or  to 
18  per  cent,  and  with  their  dependents  to  42  per 
cent,  of  the  population.  Thus  the  positions  of 
agriculture  and  industry  were  practically  re- 
versed during  the  twenty  years. 

In  trade  and  transportation,  the  workers  in- 
creased from  1,570,000  to  3,477,000  or  from  3.4 
per  cent,  to  5.6  per  cent.,  while  with  their  depend- 
ents they  increased  from  9.9  per  cent,  to  13.3  per 
cent,  of  the  total  population. 

These  figures  are  further  supported  by  the 
great  increase  in  the  population  of  the  cities.  In 
1885  18.4  per  cent,  of  the  population  lived  in 
cities  of  20,000  or  over,  while  in  1910,  34.5  per 


238      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

cent,  lived  in  such  cities.  The  number  of  cities 
of  100,000  or  more  increased  from  21  in  1885  to 
48  in  1910,  while  in  such  cities  in  1885  there  lived 
9.4  per  cent,  and  in  1910,  21.1  per  cent,  of  the 
whole  population. 

This  great  urban  growth  would  not  have  been 
possible  without  the  industrial  and  technical 
progress  of  Germany.  Although  it  involves  cer- 
tain disquieting  features,  the  transfer  to  the  cities 
is  generally  a  sign  of  culture  and  progress,  and 
in  Germany  the  highly  efficient  operations  of  the 
cities,  as  will  be  indicated  in  a  later  chapter, 
makes  the  problem  much  less  difficult  than  in  the 
United  States. 

The  prosperity  of  Germany  is  reflected,  as  has 
been  noted,  in  the  prosperity  of  her  banking  in- 
stitutions. She  has  a  splendid  system  of  banks, 
which  provides  for  every  legitimate  need  of  busi- 
ness and  which  co-operates  with  new  industries 
and  which  comes  to  the  support  of  every  enter- 
prise deemed  worthy  by  the  government  to  be 
entitled  to  financial  support.  This  does  away 
with  the  enormous  losses  through  fake  and  irre- 
sponsible promotion  suffered  by  the  investors  of 
the  United  States. 

The  Reichsbank  or  state  bank  is  managed  by 
government  officials,  but  its  stock  is  privately 
owned.  It  has  a  fully  paid  up  capital  of  45,- 
000,000   dollars.     It  may  issue  notes  to   three 


INCREASING  ECONOMIC  RESOURCES      239 

times  the  amount  of  its  cash  reserve,  but  these 
notes  must  be  covered  by  bills  of  exchange  and 
are  taxed  5  per  cent,  when  they  exceed  137,- 
500,000  dollars.  Our  own  newly  instituted  cur- 
rency system  was  largely  based  upon  the  fruits 
of  German  practice.  The  Reichsbank  had  183 
branches  in  1876  and  488  branches  in  1911.  The 
turnover  increased  in  that  time  from  9,171  mil- 
lion dollars  to  94,375/^  million  marks.  Its 
yearly  cash  average  for  1911  was  302%  million 
dollars,  bills  of  exchange  269%  million  dollars 
and  notes  in  circulation  415/4  million  dollars. 
Since  1876  it  has  paid  average  dividends  of  6.92 
per  cent,  and  has  paid  to  the  government,  which 
participates  in  dividends,  to  1911  81%  million 
dollars  and  to  stockholders  44  million  dollars. 
The  Reichsbank  is  the  national  clearing  house 
and  in  1911  cleared  15,7533/4  million  dollars  as 
compared  with  3,033%  million  dollars  in  1884. 

Banking  has  developed  with  extraordinary 
rapidity  in  Germany.  There  are  some  4,000 
bankers  in  Germany  but  the  bulk  of  the  business 
goes  to  the  great  promoting  banks,  which  in  addi- 
tion to  their  ordinary  operations  devote  a  great 
part  of  their  energies  to  building  up  commerce 
and  industry. 

There  are  twenty  banks  in  Germany  with 
paid  up  share  capital  of  50,000,000  marks  ($12,- 
500,000)  or  over.     The  greatest  are  the  Dresdner 


240      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

Bank,  Deutsche  Bank  and  Dicontogesellschaft, 
which  have  a  capital  of  200,000,000  marks  ($50,- 
000,000)  each,  the  Bank  fur  Handel  u.  Industrie, 
160,000,000  marks  ($40,000,000),  A.  Schaaff- 
hausenscher  Bankverein,  145,000,000  marks 
($36,750,000)  and  Berliner  Handelsgesellschaft 
with  110,000,000  marks  ($27,500,000)  capital. 
These  great  banks  are  very  active  in  commercial 
and  industrial  promotions  and  the  directors  of  the 
Dresdner  bank,  for  example,  are  on  the  boards  of 
200  manufacturing  and  other  concerns,  having  a 
share  capital  aggregating  2,610,000,000  marks 
($652,500,000). 

With  such  financial  giants  behind  them  and 
ready  to  aid  them  in  every  legitimate  undertak- 
ing instead  of  trying  to  choke  them  off  and 
monopolize  the  business,  the  great  progress  of 
the  German  business  man  can  be  readily  under- 
stood. The  result  is  that  Germany  is  richer  per 
capita  than  any  other  country  in  the  world  and 
sounder  in  financial  position  than  any  of  the 
other  countries  of  Europe  which  is  shown  by  the 
fact  that  she  did  not  declare  a  moratorium  at  the 
beginning  of  the  war  as  did  the  other  European 
countries.  No  more  convincing  evidence  could 
be  shown  of  the  extent  and  substantial  character 
of  the  progress  she  has  made  in  the  last  genera- 
tion. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

HOW    GERMANY    HAS   DEVELOPED    CITY 
PLANNING 

THE  fact  that  there  even  exists  an  art  of 
city  planning  is  in  all  probability  un- 
known to  nine  readers  out  of  ten,  and 
probably  not  one  in  a  hundred  has  either  any 
idea  of  its  principles,  of  the  highly  important 
place  it  occupies  in  the  development  of  the  mod- 
ern city,  or  of  the  great  handicap  suffered  by  a 
city  in  the  planning  of  which  the  principles  of 
the  art  have  been  neglected. 

Yet  Germany  universities  have  courses  in  city 
planning,  and  as  an  art  and  science  it  reaches  a 
high  point  of  development,  while  the  more  public 
spirited  citizens  of  other  countries,  realizing  the 
importance  of  city  planning,  visit  Germany  to 
become  acquainted  with  its  principles  and  prac- 
tice, for  in  this  respect  as  in  so  many  others  Ger- 
many is  the  bearer  of  the  world's  lamp  of  knowl- 
edge. 

City  planning  is  a  subject  of  great  complexity 
and  manifold  considerations,  and  space  permits 
only  the  statement  of  a  few  of  its  basic  princi- 
ples. 

241 


242      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

Cities  exist  for  certain  purposes  and  were  such 
purposes  not  carried  out,  cities  would  not  exist, 
as  the  population  would  continue  to  live  in  rural 
districts,  for  there  is  no  particular  reason  why 
cities  should  exist  except  that  they  minister 
to  certain  human  desires  and  ambitions  more  ef- 
fectively than  do  the  rural  districts.  A  city  is 
thus  fundamentally  a  kind  of  apparatus  on  a 
large  scale  for  carrying  out  certain  human  pur- 
poses, and  this  being  the  case,  the  necessity  and 
desirability  of  planning  it  so  that  it  will  best  ac- 
complish such  objects  is  apparent. 

The  principal  object  of  a  city  is  to  enable  the 
largest  possible  number  of  persons  to  exchange 
their  products  with  the  least  possible  waste  and 
inconvenience.  In  order  to  carry  out  this  de- 
sideratum the  city  must  provide  in  the  best  man- 
ner for: 

The  housing  of  its  inhabitants  and  their  in- 
dustries. 

The  conveyance  of  supplies  and  materials  of 
manufacture  and  manufactured  products. 

The  disposition  of  waste  materials. 

The  arrangement  of  the  city  in  an  accessible 
manner,  with  rapid  and  convenient  means  of 
transportation. 

The  provision  of  facilities  for  education,  as- 
sistance and  recreation  for  the  common  use. 

The  accomplishment  of  these  various  purposes 


HAS  DEVELOPED  CITY  PLANNING      243 

is  largely  an  engineering  undertaking,  but  in 
addition  to  the  practical  side,  the  city  must  also 
serve  as  a  place  of  residence,  as  well  as  a  place  of 
exchange,  so  that  in  tlie  attaining  of  its  physical 
purposes,  it  is  highly  desirable  that  aesthetic  con- 
siderations be  duly  regarded. 

City  planning  thus  becomes  both  an  art  and  a 
science  and  as  it  affects  all  city  dwellers  so  inti- 
mately, it  is  of  the  highest  consequence.  City 
planning,  indeed,  determines  the  destiny  of  a 
city.  It  develops  artistic  taste,  civic  pride  and 
patriotism,  it  makes  better  citizens  and  artisans; 
it  adds  to  health,  comfort  and  happiness ;  it  helps 
to  increase  the  population  and  to  produce  indus- 
trial prosperity;  it  attracts  industry,  commerce 
and  visitors;  produces  better  transportation 
facilities,  improves  hygienic  conditions  and  pro- 
vides more  adequate  and  less  expensive  living 
quarters  and  food  supplies.  It  is  not  only  an 
art  of  the  first  importance  and  a  science  that  de- 
mands the  attention  of  all  but  a  business  propo- 
sition of  the  first  magnitude. 

That  this  is  true  is  shown  by  the  growth  of 
German  cities,  which  in  a  general  way  during  the 
last  thirty  years  has  been  at  over  twice  the  rate 
of  increase  of  American  cities  of  analogous  im- 
portance. Although  the  growth  of  German 
cities  has  been  due  to  many  causes,  that  of  the 
thorough  application  of  the  principles  of  city 


244      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

planning  to  their  development  has  been  the  one 
of  the  most  importance,  for  it  has  made  the  Ger- 
man city  the  ideal  city  to  live  in,  and  the  result  is 
that  the  German  cities  have  grown  almost  as  if 
by  magic.  They  have  become  both  artistically 
and  practically  the  most  desirable  places  of  resi- 
dence and  business  in  the  world. 

Yet  city  planning  as  it  is  now  known  is  a 
modern  art.  Althought  its  general  artistic  prin- 
ciples have  been  understood  since  the  times  of  the 
ancients,  as  is  seen  in  the  remains  of  ancient 
cities,  the  old  masters  did  not  reduce  their  the- 
ories to  writing  and  the  first  considerable  treat- 
ment of  principles  was  left  for  the  German 
architects,  engineers  and  builders  of  the  last  gen- 
eration, notable  among  them  were  Baumeister, 
Stiibben  and  Sitte,  who,  however,  following  the 
example  of  their  predecessors  left  more  to  be 
judged  from  their  practice  than  from  their  writ- 
ings. The  statement  of  the  principles  of  the  art 
has  thus  been  a  very  gradual  development  and 
perhaps  the  most  comprehensive  analysis  yet 
made  of  the  subject  has  remained  for  my  own 
book  on  city  planning. 

As  I  have  pointed  out  in  that  volume,  the 
leading  elements  of  the  design  of  a  city  from  the 
aesthetic  point  of  view  are  its  treatment  as  an 
artistic  unit,  the  dominance  of  some  principal 
characteristic  and  the  proper  subordination  of  its 


Tauentzien  Street,  Berlin. 


Municipal  Opera  House,  Frankfort. 

Striking  example  of  the  Science  of  Modern  City  Planning. 
The  views  illustrate  the  regulation  of  the  height  of  the  buildings, 
the  arrangement  of  roadways,  tracks,  and  central  promenade 
of  a  boulevard,  and  the  placing  at  focal  points  of  important 
structures. 


HAS  DEVELOPED  CITY  PLANNING      245 

various  parts,  in  short  the  same  principles  that 
govern  the  production  of  any  work  of  art.  The 
city  is,  in  a  way,  a  painting  upon  a  vast  canvas, 
or  a  bas  relief  upon  a  large  area  of  the  earth's 
surface,  a  design  of  gigantic  parts  and  all  fitted 
to  produce  a  pleasing  result  both  as  a  whole  and 
in  their  interrelations. 

There  should  be  a  central  portion  of  the  city, 
as  a  great  square,  the  various  structures  of  which 
should  be  related  to  each  other  with  some  one 
dominating  the  rest. 

This  portion  of  the  city  is  usually  termed  the 
civic  center.  The  principal  buildings  of  a  public 
character  should  be  therein,  rather  than  located 
at  unrelated  points  throughout  the  city.  If  the 
city  is  a  large  one,  there  should  be  in  various  dis- 
tricts, subordinate  centers,  carrying  out  on  a 
smaller  scale  the  idea  of  the  main  center,  and 
such  centers  may  be  devoted  to  special  purposes, 
such  as  transportation  center,  with  the  principal 
terminals,  an  art  center  with  libraries,  an  educa- 
tional center  with  college  and  school  buildings, 
an  amusement  center,  with  theaters,  concert  and 
lecture  halls,  and  such  other  centers  as  may  be 
desirable. 

The  main  plan  of  the  city  having  been  laid  out 
to  include  the  various  centers  properly  related 
to  the  principal  center,  the  great  ground  plan  of 
its  streets  should  be  laid  out  to  provide  the  most 


246      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

convenient  means  of  access  to  and  from  the  vari- 
ous centers. 

But  before  this  is  done,  the  uses  of  the  city 
should  be  considered,  whether  it  is  to  be  a  com- 
mercial, maritime,  railroad,  manufacturing  or 
political  city,  and  its  design  should  be  suited  ac- 
cordingly to  its  purposes. 

Its  location  must  also  be  considered,  the  lay  of 
the  land,  the  direction  from  whence  its  trade  and 
commerce  will  come  and  its  probable  growth. 

A  strict  degree  of  building  regulation  should 
be  made  possible  so  that  certain  sections  may  be 
set  apart  permanently  for  residences,  other  por- 
tions for  manufacturing,  others  for  commerce 
and  trade,  amusements  and  other  activities.  All 
these  districts  or  zones  should  be  fixed  and  build- 
ing and  other  regulations  laid  down  and  enforced 
which  will  prevent  real  estate  speculation  and  the 
devotion  of  certain  parts  of  the  city  to  uses  not 
in  conformity  with  its  proper  development  as  a 
whole. 

Such  regulations  are  not  only  feasible  but  are 
absolutely  indispensable  and  prevent  the  freak- 
ish and  inconvenient  development  which  Ameri- 
can cities  are  subject  to  at  the  hands  of  special 
interests  and  real  estate  speculators.  They  pre- 
vent the  improper  encroachment  of  trade  and 
noisome  and  other  kinds  of  manufacturing  in 
certain  districts  and  enable  the  city  to  be  devel- 


HAS  DEVELOPED  CITY  PLANNING      <W 

oped  properly.  Without  proper  regulations, 
city  planning  is  an  impossibility  and  the  absence 
of  regulations  accounts  for  the  almost  criminal 
and  monstrously  unequal  growth  of  the  parts  of 
various  American  cities,  which  serves  no  useful 
purpose  and  only  enriches  certain  speculators  at 
the  expense  of  the  citizens  as  a  whole. 

For  example,  the  recent  development  of 
Fourth  Avenue,  New  York,  with  the  erection  of 
enormous  buildings  devoted  to  the  textile  trade 
was  brought  about  by  the  desire  to  get  near  the 
hotel  district,  which  was  in  turn  determined  by 
the  location  of  the  theaters  which  had  to  move  up 
town  to  find  cheaper  sites.  This  movement  has 
left  an  enormous  section  between  Franklin  and 
Fourteenth  Streets  practically  untenanted,  and 
has  produced  unnecessary  congestion  and  ex- 
pense in  the  upper  district  without  benefit  to 
any  one  and  loss  to  many.  Such  a  tremendous 
and  unnecessary  movement  could  never  have  oc- 
curred in  a  German  city.  It  is  only  one  ex- 
ample of  many  to  be  found  in  every  American 
city,  demonstrating  that  the  foundation  of  city 
planning  is  in  proper  regulation.  Yet  this  sub- 
ject has  been  hardly  touched  upon  by  American 
municipalities. 

With  the  various  districts  assigned,  the  layout 
of  the  great  ground  plan  may  proceed.  Boule- 
vards, avenues,  main  streets  and  tributary  streets 


248      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

are  planned,  of  suitable  different  widths,  and  the 
heights  of  buildings  are  regulated  in  accordance 
with  the  width  of  streets  and  locations.  For  this 
purpose  zones  are  established  in  the  various  dis- 
tricts, in  some  cities  as  many  as  18  different 
classes  of  zones  being  prescribed.  The  streets 
are  thus  planned  to  carry  the  traffic  which  they 
will  be  called  upon  to  carry,  and  that  this  traffic 
will  not  produce  congestion  is  thus  known  in  ad- 
vance. In  American  cities  without  regulations, 
great  skyscrapers  are  run  up  in  small  districts 
upon  narrow  streets  and  a  terrific  congestion  is 
produced  highly  detrimental  to  all  concerned. 

In  laying  out  the  street  plan,  geometrical  pat- 
terns are  avoided.  Interminably  long  straight 
streets  are  avoided,  and  each  street  is  given  some 
definite  length,  and  at  the  end  run  into  another 
street  or  turned  aside.  This  supplies  the  highly 
important  feature  of  focal  points,  or  situations 
for  important  public  or  private  buildings,  which 
may  then  be  seen  to  advantage,  serving  to  embel- 
lish the  section  and  to  produce  that  sense  of  en- 
closure in  the  streets  of  a  city  without  which  indi- 
viduality cannot  be  obtained. 

The  individual  character  of  the  portions  of  a 
German  city  constitutes  one  of  its  chief  charms. 
The  co-relation  of  these  various  individual  sec- 
tions by  means  of  the  great  ground  plan  and  sys- 
tem of  greater  and  lesser  centers,  imparts  a  sense 


HAS  DEVELOPED  CITY  PLANNING      249 

of  unity  to  the  design  of  the  whole  city  and  pro- 
vides the  artistic  framework  of  the  city,  the  em- 
bellishment of  which  is  accomplished  by  the  pri- 
vate buildings. 

The  planning  of  a  German  city  includes 
provision  for  the  future  as  well  as  for  the  present. 
Berlin  has  plans  already  made  for  the  growth  of 
the  city  for  the  next  century,  and  owing  to  the 
regulations,  it  is  known  in  advance  just  where 
the  various  sections  of  the  city  will  be  and  what 
their  character  will  be  when  her  population 
reaches  certain  figures,  whether  it  happens  in 
eighty  years,  a  hundred  or  a  hundred  and  twenty 
or  more.  What  New  York,  Chicago  and  San 
Francisco  will  be  like  or  in  what  direction  they 
will  grow  in  a  hundred  years  no  one  would  be  so 
venturesome  as  to  even  predict. 

The  German  government  does  not  allow  the 
private  citizen,  even  with  his  building,  to  spoil 
the  general  plan.  The  height  of  the  building  is 
regulated  and  certain  of  its  architectural  fea- 
tures, but  on  the  other  hand,  prizes  are  given  for 
the  best  designs  put  up  in  a  given  street  during 
a  certain  period.  These  prizes  include  some- 
times remission  of  taxes.  This  is  a  powerful 
stimulus  to  architecture  and  prevents  the  erec- 
tion of  rows  of  similar  structures  which  deface 
American  cities. 

The  application  of  the  principles  indicated  af- 


250      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

fords  a  well  laid  out  plan  and  the  city  will  grow 
up  along  definite  lines  with  problems  of  trans- 
portation and  distribution  known  in  advance. 
The  engineering  features  may  thus  be  handled 
with  certainty  and  efficiency  and  the  whole  opera- 
tions of  the  city  carried  out  to  the  best  possible 
advantage,  with  consequent  convenience  and  sav- 
ing to  the  public  at  every  turn. 

The  German  city  in  addition  to  its  attention 
to  the  general  plan  attends  just  as  closely  to  de- 
tails and  thus  with  little  trouble,  it  greatly  in- 
creases convenience  and  comfort.  Among  the 
numerous  items  which  will  serve  to  show  the  prin- 
ciples followed,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  streets 
are  made  as  smooth  as  possible;  no  inequalities 
are  permitted  in  the  paving,  no  manhole  covers 
project,  no  obstructions  are  permitted  on  the 
sidewalk,  no  open  gratings  to  emit  hot  gases  or 
fetid  draughts,  no  great  unsightly  signs  are  al- 
lowed, etc.  Building  operations  are  not  per- 
mitted to  obstruct  the  sidewalks,  while  loading 
and  unloading  the  wagons  with  temporary  planks 
from  wagon  to  building  across  the  sidewalk  also 
is  not  permitted. 

The  result  of  all  these  smaller  precautions  is 
that  the  streets  are  always  open  to  the  public 
without  obstructions  and  in  the  best  possible 
state  of  repair.  The  smoothness  and  freedom 
from  obstructions  and  clutterings-up  vastly  im- 


HAS  DEVELOPED  CITY  PLANNING      251 

prove  the  general  appearance  of  the  city  and  the 
pride  thus  shown  by  the  municipality  is  reflected 
by  the  citizens,  who  similarly  take  proper  care  of 
their  premises.  The  negligent  ones  are  com- 
pelled by  municipal  regulations  to  do  so,  if  they 
do  not  voluntarily,  so  that  the  German  city  is 
well  designed,  well  operated,  and  well  kept.  As 
a  place  of  residence  it  is,  as  nearly  as  is  humanly 
possible,  ideal. 

The  attention  which  Germany  has  given  to  her 
cities  is  reflected  in  the  tide  of  tourist  travel 
which  has  them  as  its  objective.  Visitors 
from  all  over  the  world  flock  to  German  cities. 
In  addition  to  its  normally  attractive  features, 
the  German  city  usually  has  some  individual  at- 
traction in  which  it  takes  particular  pride. 

There  is  thus  the  Zeil  at  Frankfort,  the  Jung- 
fernstieg  at  Hamburg,  Unter  den  Linden  and 
the  Brandenburgertor  at  Berlin,  the  Hohen- 
staufer  Ring  at  Cologne,  the  Maximilian  Strasse 
at  Munich,  the  Konigs  Allee  at  Dusseldorf  and 
the  Briihl  Terrasse  at  Dresden,  etc. 

American  cities  are  negligent  in  this  particular 
as  they  are  in  most  matters  of  city  planning. 
Washington  and  Buffalo  alone  have  proper 
ground  plans,  but  other  cities  offer  little  of  in- 
terest to  the  visitor.  American  cities  are  not  in- 
ferior in  size,  commerce  or  wealth,  but  who,  as  a 
tourist,  ever  visits  Jersey  City,  a  larger  city  than 


252      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

Stuttgart;  who  goes  to  Detroit,  with  a  larger 
population  than  Dresden;  to  St.  Louis,  almost 
the  equal  of  Hamburg;  to  Baltimore,  greater 
than  Munich;  to  Milwaukee  or  Cincinnati,  supe- 
rior to  Frankfort;  to  Minneapolis,  larger  than 
Diisseldorf  or  to  a  score  of  American  cities,  to 
see  any  sights  of  national,  much  less  of  interna- 
tional, interest? 

American  cities  thus  lack  distinction  and  in- 
terest. And  yet  this  need  not  be  the  case.  City 
planning  is  seldom  a  matter  that  deals  with  a  new 
city  on  a  virgin  site.  Almost  all  German  cities 
have  been  merely  re-planned  to  gain  their  present 
beauties.  The  same  is  possible  with  American 
cities. 

Every  American  city  should  have  a  compre- 
hensive plan  laid  out  by  some  one  of  the  few  ex- 
perts in  the  art,  and  as  it  develops  it  should  fol- 
low its  plan.  Within  a  generation  remarkable 
results  will  be  achieved,  for  new  buildings  will 
only  be  permitted  in  accordance  with  the  plan, 
while  the  old  buildings  will  gradually  give  place. 
With  the  wealth  of  American  cities,  wonders  will 
soon  be  accomplished.  It  needs  only  a  few, 
often  only  one  public  spirited  citizen  in  a  city  to 
initiate  the  movement.  And  fortunately,  Amer- 
ican cities  are  beginning  to  awake  to  the  impor- 
tance of  city  planning  and  re-planning.  Consid- 
erably more  than  a  hundred  have  taken  up  the 
subject. 


HAS  DEVELOPED  CITY  PLANNING      253 

Small  towns,  too,  are  following  the  example 
of  the  larger  cities  and  it  is  of  especial  impor- 
tance to  them,  for  they  may  lay  out  their  plans 
now  upon  unoccupied  territory  and  may  influ- 
ence their  growth  most  markedly,  at  the  same 
time  furnishing  proper  reasons  for  local  pride. 
American  cities  will  still  be  here  centuries  from 
now.  The  village  of  to-day  may  well  be  the 
metropolis  of  the  next  century  or  so,  with  much 
or  little  to  bless  its  early  residents  for  according 
as  they  now  realize  or  neglect  their  opportunities. 

Indeed,  of  the  many  things  that  America  may 
learn  from  Germany,  few  are  of  greater  impor- 
tance than  a  proper  realization  of  the  importance 
of  city  planning. 


CHAPTER  XX 

THE   HOUSING   PROBLEM    IN   GERMANY 

THE  rapid  change  of  great  masses  of  the 
population  of  Germany  from  rural  to 
urban  industrial  pursuits  in  the  last  gen- 
eration has  created  the  problem  of  their  proper 
housing.  As  in  England,  the  United  States  and 
other  countries,  wherever  such  movements  have 
taken  place,  the  problem  has  proved  a  most  dif- 
ficult one  of  solution,  and  it  cannot  be  said  that 
Germany  has  as  yet  been  as  signally  successful  in 
housing  her  poorer  classes  as  she  has  been  in  other 
social  endeavors. 

In  this  respect,  however,  she  is  generally  as 
well  advanced  as  other  countries,  while  in  par- 
ticular instances  she  has  accomplished  much  more, 
and  she  is  gradually  reaching  a  treatment  of  the 
subject  which  promises  to  prove  the  true  solution 
for  her  own  laboring  classes  as  well  as  the  model 
for  those  of  other  countries. 

German  development  of  housing  has  been 
somewhat  restricted  by  the  very  policies  which  in 
other  directions  are  so  beneficial  to  the  general 
welfare.  Thus,  for  example,  the  extension  of 
credit  on  liberal  terms  by  banking  institutions 

254 


HOUSING  PROBLEM  IN  GERMANY      255 

which  is  so  desirable  in  the  case  of  manufacturing 
and  other  industrial  concerns,  has  in  a  measure 
the  effect  of  encouraging  building  speculation  by 
contractors  and  builders  whose  equities  in  the 
completed  buildings  are  so  small  and  the  interest 
charges  which  they  must  meet  accordingly  so 
great  that  the  rents  must  be  fixed  on  a  high  scale. 
There  was  some  years  ago  a  considerable  real 
estate  speculation  which  burdened,  for  example, 
large  sections  of  Berlin,  with  high  rates  of  rent. 

Again,  in  some  cases,  too  much  area  was  de- 
voted to  parks,  and  streets  in  residential  sections 
were  made  too  wide,  which  had  the  effect  of  caus- 
ing buildings  to  be  built  higher  in  the  air.  The 
German  of  ten  or  fifteen  years  ago  was  loath, 
also,  to  living  in  the  suburbs,  preferring  a  loca- 
tion near  his  place  of  employment  and  this  tended 
to  produce  still  greater  congestion. 

The  right  of  building  inspection,  too,  owing  to 
custom,  was  preserved  by  the  municipalities  for 
their  own  exercise,  and  thus  not  being  under  na- 
tional control,  a  variety  of  practices  grew  up, 
each  town  being  its  own  local  authority,  produc- 
ing a  diversity  of  regulations  which  in  many  cases 
has  not  proved  any  more  successful  than  the 
similarly  diverse  regulations  of  American  munic- 
ipalities. The  housing  problem  is  thus  one  of 
Germany's  most  pressing  problems,  but  with 
other  problems  more  or  less  settled,  greater  at- 


256      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

tention  is  being  devoted  to  it  and  important 
progress  is  now  being  made. 

The  underlying  principle  of  housing  improve- 
ments is  that  of  reduction  of  the  rate  of  interest 
on  the  invested  capital.  It  is  being  recognized 
that  when  private  capital  is  employed  in  the 
building  of  houses  and  is  permitted  to  follow  the 
natural  course  of  competition,  intolerable  condi- 
tions of  crowding  result.  The  private  landlord 
does  not  hesitate  to  create  the  slums,  in  fact  the 
greater  the  crowding,  the  greater  will  be  his 
profits. 

But  if  he  is  permitted  to  profit  thus  to  the 
full  extent  of  the  possibilities  of  "the  business," 
disease  and  improper  moral  conditions  will  re- 
sult and  the  expense  and  loss  to  the  community 
will  be  vastly  more  than  the  gain  to  the  private 
capitalist.  The  state  thus  is  justified  in  step- 
ping in  and  in  one  way  or  another  so  interfering 
with  the  "law  of  supply  and  demand"  as  to  ob- 
tain the  greatest  good  for  the  greatest  number. 

The  German  states  have  adopted  several 
methods  of  combatting  the  evils  of  landlordism, 
among  which  are : 

(1)  The  passage  and  enforcement  of  legal 
regulations  which  will  ensure  a  certain  standard 
of  housing. 

This  has  the  effect  of  reducing  the  rate  of 
profit  of  building  operations  and  of  driving  pri- 


HOUSING  PROBLEM  IN  GERMANY      257 

vate  capital  more  or  less  from  the  field,  thus  pro- 
ducing a  scarcity  of  houses  and  re-establishing 
for  another  reason,  the  very  conditions  sought  to 
be  remedied.  Accordingly,  legal  regulations 
can  only  be  carried  to  a  certain  point  if  they  are 
not  to  defeat  their  own  purpose. 

(2)  The  actual  building  of  houses  which  are 
sold  or  leased  to  tenants  on  such  terms  as  to 
yield  only  a  small  rate  of  interest. 

This  plan  has  the  same  disadvantage  of  driv- 
ing private  capital  out  and  also  the  disadvantage 
of  placing  property  in  the  hands  of  private 
owners  at  less  than  its  real  worth.  In  practice 
it  was  found  that  terms  too  favorable  caused  the 
owners  to  re-sell  at  prices  nearer  the  real  worth 
so  that  the  practice  has  to  be  limited,  and  certain 
regulations  imposed  preventing  re-sale  except 
upon  stipulated  conditions. 

(3)  The  encouragement  of  private  building 
and  loan  associations,  by  lending  to  them  public 
funds  to  be  used  in  building  operations  at  low 
rates  of  interest. 

(4)  The  guaranteeing  of  the  debts  of  such 
associations  without  advancing  funds. 

(5)  The  encouragement  of  individuals  and 
companies  in  the  erection  of  houses  for  employees 
by  remission  of  taxation  and  sale  of  land  at 
favorable  rates,  and  by  guaranteeing  loans  made 
to  obtain  funds  for  such  operations. 


258      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

There  are  various  other  modifications  of  these 
plans  in  use  in  various  parts  of  Germany,  and  a 
wide  diversity  of  opinion  exists  as  to  the  best 
methods  for  securing  to  the  working  classes 
proper  housing  accommodations  without  discour- 
aging capital.  In  many  cases  the  money  is  ad- 
vanced out  of  the  sick  and  benefit  insurance 
funds,  which  is  thus  well  employed,  and  which 
would  otherwise  be  brought  too  sharply  into  com- 
petition with  private  capital  to  the  disadvantage 
of  the  latter.  This  would  not  be  wise  as  capital 
must  always  be  assured  of  profitable  employment 
or  else  it  will  flow  to  other  countries. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  problem  is  one  of 
great  intricacy  and  one  in  which  mere  govern- 
mental fiat  can  accomplish  little. 

The  partisans  of  private  capital  claim  that  pri- 
vate capital  must  always  provide  the  greater  part 
of  the  housing  facilities  and  for  this  reason  favor 
the  guaranteeing  of  building  loans  and  loan 
societies'  obligations  as  against  direct  govern- 
mental participation  in  building  operations. 
Their  opponents  claim  that  the  duty  of  the  state 
to  itself  in  the  preservation  of  the  health  of  its 
citizens  demands  communal  activities  and  gov- 
mental  participation  in  building  operations, 
as  private  capital  never  seeks  building  invest- 
ments with  sufficient  avidity. 

The  most  notable  instance  of  governmental 


HOUSING  PROBLEM  IN  GERMANY      259 

participation  is  seen  in  the  city  of  Ulm,  a  com- 
paratively small  manufacturing  city  of  56,000 
population.  The  city  owns  80  per  cent,  of  the 
land  in  and  around  its  city  limits  and  it  has  not 
hesitated  to  embark  heavily  in  building  opera- 
tions. The  razing  of  the  old  fortifications  in 
1891  gave  the  city  an  opportunity  to  acquire 
large  areas  of  land.  It  purchased  1210  acres 
for  $1,398,640  and  up  to  1909  had  sold  405  acres 
for  $1,623,924,  thus  making  a  profit  of  $234,284 
and  retaining  805  acres.  The  city  owns  in  all 
4942  acres  and  has  built  175  houses  and  has  en- 
couraged various  societies  to  build.  Regula- 
tions are  laid  down  to  prevent  the  increase  of 
rents  when  the  value  of  the  ground  increases. 
The  city  may  also  repurchase  land  or  houses 
which  it  sells  if  the  buyer  is  unable  to  pay  his  in- 
stalments. He  usually  pays  10  per  cent,  down 
and  5  per  cent,  a  year,  of  which  2  per  cent,  is  an 
amortization  charge.  The  city  may  also  repur- 
chase if  the  buyer  ceases  to  occupy  the  house  or 
sub-lets  it  or  wishes  to  sell.  These  regulations 
achieve  the  object  desired,  of  providing  suitable 
accommodations  at  reasonable  prices  and  the 
system  in  Ulm  is  in  successful  operation. 

Leipzig,  on  the  contrary,  has  not  gone  into  mu- 
nicipal building  operation,  but  advances  money 
to  so  called  "public  utility"  societies,  which  as  a 
rule  limit  themselves  to  4  per  cent,  profits.     It 


260      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

also  guarantees  their  obligations.  It  leased  to 
one  society  some  3,300  acres  of  public  land  and 
became  surety  for  $925,000  of  loans  for  the  erec- 
tion of  buildings  for  workingmen.  At  the  end 
of  80  years  the  land  and  buildings  will  revert  to 
the  city  without  charge.  It  lends  money  to 
building  and  loan  societies  to  the  extent  of  80 
per  cent,  of  the  value  of  the  buildings  erected, 
redeemable  in  50  years,  charging  interest  at  4 
per  cent.  From  this  is  indicated  the  substantial 
nature  of  the  structures  required  to  be  erected. 

Various  other  cities  follow  somewhat  similar 
plans,  such  as  Augsburg,  Barmen,  Bremen, 
Cologne,  Dresden,  Diisseldorf,  Essen,  Madge- 
burg,  Munich,  Nuremberg  and  Strassburg. 
Interest  varies  from  3  to  4  per  cent.  In  many 
cases  taxes  are  remitted. 

Municipalities  generally  are  following  the  cus- 
tom of  guaranteeing  loans  made  to  building  soci- 
eties by  the  pension  funds. 

Practically  half  of  the  cities  of  Germany  are 
engaged  in  operations  of  various  sorts  calculated 
to  improve  housing  conditions  for  the  working- 
men. 

In  Berlin  one  building  society  has  some  1,000 
flats  in  a  dozen  large  flat  houses.  It  has  5,000 
members,  70  per  cent,  of  whom  are  workmen  and 
the  remainder  clerks.  About  one  quarter  of  the 
apartments  rent  from  $50  to  $75  per  year,  and 


HOUSING  PROBLEM  IN  GERMANY      261 

another  quarter  up  to  $100  a  year,  while  the 
highest  run  up  to  $225  a  year. 

This  is  a  co-operative  society,  so  that  if  any 
profits  are  shown,  they  do  not  go  to  private  cap- 
italists, but  are  re-divided  among  the  partici- 
pators who  are  the  tenants.  There  is  thus  no  in- 
centive to  cause  the  property  to  produce  any 
income  above  the  interest  charge. 

In  some  societies  where  a  profit  is  produced, 
it  is  devoted  to  club  buildings,  gymnasiums  and 
like  features  calculated  to  improve  the  conditions 
surrounding  the  tenants.  Some  of  the  apart- 
ment houses  are  so  large  that  such  features  are 
found  in  connection  with  a  single  building,  in- 
cluding even  day  nurseries  and  kindergartens, 
where  the  children  may  be  left  while  their  par- 
ents are  at  work.  In  other  cases  the  tenants  of 
a  number  of  different  buildings  participate  in 
such  advantages. 

The  desirability  of  belonging  to  such  building 
societies  is  so  great  in  many  instances  they  have 
long  waiting  lists  of  prospective  tenants. 

In  some  cases  of  co-operative  buildings,  the 
tenant  is  the  actual  owner  of  his  own  apartment 
in  the  building,  which  he  can  sell  as  he  would  a 
detached  piece  of  realty.  In  other  cases  he  owns 
an  undivided  interest  in  the  building.  These 
forms  of  participation  make  each  tenant  a  guar- 
dian of  the  property  and  it  is  accordingly  much 


262      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

better  looked  after  than  is  the  ordinary  dwelling. 

Such  a  plan  of  co-operative  ownership  has 
been  followed  to  a  limited  extent  in  New  York 
City  among  a  few  wealthy  apartment  house 
owners,  but  has  never  been  applied  on  any  scale 
or  to  the  needs  of  the  working  classes. 

The  great  progress  that  has  been  made  in  Ber- 
lin in  the  housing  of  workingmen  is  testified  to 
by  Thomas  A.  Edison,  who  on  returning  from  a 
trip  to  Germany,  said : 

"I  saw  what  made  me  ashamed  for  my  own 
United  States,  I  am  afraid.  The  workingmen 
of  New  York  City  are  not  housed  as  are  these 
Berliners.  What  a  contrast  to  the  dreadful  ten- 
ements which  disgrace  and  deface  New  York's 
crowded  districts. 

"The  buildings  which  these  workingmen  went 
home  to  could  not  properly  be  spoken  of  as  tene- 
ments— a  term  which  in  this  country  has  fallen 
into  disrepute.  They  may  be  better  referred  to 
as  apartment  houses,  beautifully  constructed, 
perfectly  supplied  with  light  and  air,  safe  against 
fire  and  made  up  of  large  and  conveniently  ar- 
ranged rooms." 

The  conditions  in  many  places  in  Germany 
are  very  much  better  than  even  in  the  Berlin 
buildings  just  mentioned,  particularly  in  the 
towns  and  garden  cities  constructed  by  certain 
very  large  concerns  for  the  housing  of  their  own 
workmen. 


HOUSING  PROBLEM  IN  GERMANY      263 

The  dwellings  of  several  colonies  of  the  Krupp 
Company  at  Essen,  being  detached  houses  on 
low  priced  land  and  intended  only  to  yield  a  low 
rate  of  interest,  are  rented  on  very  much  more 
favorable  terms.     The  annual  rents  are : 

In  one-family 
house 

For  a  3-room  dwelling $47.50  to  $55.00 

For  a  4-room  dwelling 62.50  to     70.00 

For  a  5-room  dwelling 75.00  to     96.00 

In  multiple- 
family  house 

For  a  3-room  dwelling 42.50  to     52.50 

For  a  4-room  dwelling 55.00  to     60.00 

For  a  5-room  dwelling 65.00  to     70.00 

The  Kru'pp  dwellings  are  for  the  most  part 
multiple  dwelling  houses  or  houses  for  two  or 
more  families  and  are  usually  laid  out  as  small 
cities.  Some  have  been  established  since  as  early 
as  1855,  but  these  were  rather  barracks.  The 
first  real  colony  dates  from  1863,  while  the  larg- 
est one  was  built  in  1872.  The  tendency  since 
has  been  toward  smaller  units. 

A  recent  development  in  Germany  is  the  gar- 
den city  which  has  been  very  successful  in  Eng- 
land, the  prototype  of  which  is  to  be  found  in 
the  Krupp  buildings. 

The  garden  city  is  merely  a  village  laid  out  on 


264      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

a  well  arranged  plan,  with  garden  space  for  each 
householder. 

Hellerau  near  Dresden  is  one  of  the  first  and 
best  examples.  Its  345  acres  are  divided  into 
two  sections,  one  for  workingmen's  cottages  and 
the  other  for  villas.  The  cottage  section  is  built 
by  the  Hellerau  Building  Society  and  the  houses 
are  rented  to  members  only.  Membership  is  se- 
cured by  taking  a  share  equal  to  $47.60  and  the 
liability  of  the  members  ends  there.  Interest  up 
to  4  per  cent,  is  paid  on  these  shares,  and  any 
further  profits  are  divided  among  the  community. 
Tenure  is  fixed,  and  the  tenant  may  leave  at  a 
year's  notice.  Cottages  are  built  to  rent  at  $62 
to  $150  annually.  Each  cottage  has  a  garden, 
a  large  cellar,  separate  scullery  with  built-in 
boiler,  pantry,  water-closet  on  the  ground  floor, 
easily  accessible  attic,  gas  for  cooking,  electric 
light  and  bells,  water  connection,  and,  if  needed, 
accommodation  for  domestic  animals.  The 
smallest  cottage  consists  of  four  rooms,  kitchen 
and  living  room  on  the  ground  floor  and  two 
bedrooms  on  the  upper  floor,  large  enough  for  a 
family  with  two  or  three  children. 

In  the  villa  quarters,  residences  are  to  be  had 
at  a  rent  of  $200  to  $500  and  over  with  steam 
heat,  warm  water  to  the  bedrooms,  and  other 
conveniences.  The  land  is  valued  at  13.2  cents 
per  square  foot  (in  the  cottage  quarter  at  9.3 
cents  per  square  foot). 


HOUSING  PROBLEM  IN  GERMANY      265 

An  artistic  uniformity  of  building  is  guaran- 
teed by  a  building  commission,  the  sanction  of 
which  is  required  for  all  plans.  Preparatory 
schools  are  provided  for  the  younger  children; 
there  is  an  institute  of  technical  arts,  a  library 
and  such  other  institutions  as  are  of  value  to  the 
residents. 

Supplies  are  had  through  communal  stores  at 
the  lowest  possible  prices,  so  that  in  every  way 
life  in  this  garden  city  is  more  attractive  than  in 
the  usual  town. 

Another  development  of  garden  city  life  is  the 
use  in  the  summer  months  of  vacant  land,  ad- 
joining cities,  by  families  who  occupy  temporary 
houses  and  cultivate  gardens.  This  affords  a 
pleasing  and  money-saving  way  of  spending  the 
summer  for  the  workingman's  family. 

All  these  various  plans,  however,  to  be  carried 
into  execution,  need  close,  careful  and  trained 
supervision.  They  do  not  run  themselves  but 
must  be  conducted  by  men  of  ability,  with  com- 
petent paid  assistants. 

German  cities  long  ago  found  out  that  in  build- 
ing inspection,  in  the  department  of  the  work 
that  comes  actually  in  contact  with  the  tenant, 
the  services  of  well  trained  salaried  employees 
are  necessary.  There  was  at  one  time  a  large 
number  of  volunteer  inspectors  and  workers,  but 
these  proved  more  or  less  unsatisfactory,  and  the 


266      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

system  is  now  almost  wholly  one  of  trained 
executives,  who,  however,  may  work  under  vol- 
unteer boards,  though  for  the  most  part  they  are 
under  strictly  municipal  control. 

The  influences  of  the  restriction  of  the  income 
of  capital  invested  in  housings,  whether  brought 
about  by  laws  or  by  other  expedients  adopted  by 
the  state,  is  always  for  the  good  of  the  tenant 
and  ultimately  of  the  general  public.  The  fears 
that  private  capital  may  be  driven  out  of  the 
field,  even  if  well  grounded,  need  not  be  consid- 
ered of  too  great  importance. 

There  is  no  very  good  reason  why  the  city  of 
the  future  should  not  be  entirely  built  by  public 
capital  or  by  capital  limited  to  a  small  investment 
return.  There  is  no  doubt  that  conditions  of  liv- 
ing would  be  vastly  better  for  all  residents.  It  is 
not  even  beyond  the  limits  of  the  probable  that  in 
the  future  such  publicly  owned  cities,  with  their 
vastly  greater  attractiveness,  will  outstrip  in 
growth  and  prosperity  and  finally  bankrupt  cities 
built  by  private  capital.  Indeed,  the  tendency 
now  beginning  in  Germany,  though  doubtlessly 
unintentional,  is  definitely  working  in  that  direc- 
tion, and  for  that  reason  Germany  is  really  be- 
ginning to  solve  the  problem  of  housing  and  so 
far  has  made  greater  progress  in  the  right  direc- 
tion than  has  any  other  country.  The  pressure 
of  her  population  forces  her  into  such  a  channel. 


HOUSING  PROBLEM  IN  GERMANY      267 

Sooner  or  later  America  will  doubtless  come  to 
the  same  necessity.  It  would  seem  more  profit- 
able to  anticipate  it  and  initiate  such  projects 
now  while  the  field  is  more  nearly  virgin. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

Germany's  pre-eminence  in  the  arts 

THE  tremendous  scientific,  technical,  in- 
dustrial and  commercial  progress  of 
Germany  in  the  past  generation  has 
loomed  so  large  upon  the  world's  horizon  that 
Germany  is  now  being  reproached  for  having 
turned  her  back  upon  art,  literature  and  music, 
and  the  land  of  Goethe,  Schiller,  Mozart,  Bee- 
thoven and  Kant  is  accused  of  being  only  the 
land  of  Krupp,  Thyssen,  Siemens,  Roentgen  and 
Zeppelin.  According  to  our  British  critics  art 
has  been  submerged  in  Germany  and  the  nation 
is  abandoned  to  the  false  gods  of  the  merely 
material. 

Such  accusations  are  a  matter  of  amusement  to 
the  German  and  might  well  be  disregarded,  did 
they  not  place  Germany  in  a  false  light  and  in- 
fluence the  world's  opinion  wrongly,  to  the  cost 
of  all  concerned. 

The  truth  is  that  there  has  never  been  a  time 
in  the  history  of  Germany  when  art,  literature 
and  music  have  had  a  more  profound  hold  upon 
the  public  in  general  than  the  present.     There 

268 


PRE-EMINENCE  IN  THE  ARTS         269 

has  never  been  a  time  when  the  public  expendi- 
ture for  such  cultural  purposes  was  greater, 
there  has  never  been  a  time  when  the  German 
public  has  as  much  time  and  money  to  spend  or 
has  spent  it  as  freely  upon  the  arts  as  it  does 
now  and  there  has  never  been  a  time  when,  as  a 
whole,  the  output  of  German  fine  art  was  as  uni- 
formly high  as  at  present. 

Whether  Germany  can  or  cannot  at  the 
moment  boast  of  the  presence  of  world-artists 
of  the  highest  rank  is  unimportant,  for  such  men 
are  always  accidents  of  time  and  no  particular 
generation  can  be  properly  condemned  for  not 
having  produced  them. 

Furthermore,  the  present  is  never  the  decisive 
judge  of  its  contemporaries  and  some  of  the  men 
of  to-day  may  prove  in  the  future  as  renowned  as 
the  most  famous  artists  of  the  past.  The  lead- 
ers of  German  art  are  unquestionably  the  equal 
to-day  of  those  of  any  other  country,  and  Munich 
is  as  much  a  mecca  of  artists  as  Paris  and  far 
more  so  than  London. 

There  has  been  during  the  past  twenty-five 
years  a  marked  renaissance  in  German  art  of  all 
kinds  and  Germany  has  to-day  a  large  number 
of  writers,  painters,  musicians,  sculptors  and 
other  artists  whose  productions  are  numerous 
and  of  high  rank.  The  future  of  art  is  nowhere 
so  bright  as  in  Germany  to-day  and  to  prove  that 


270      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

she  has  not  fallen  behind  in  the  past  and  is  not 
now  in  less  than  the  foremost  position,  needs  but 
a  glance  at  the  names  of  those  whose  reputa- 
tions are  known  the  world  over. 

Among  her  noted  writers  and  philosophers  of 
the  past  and  present  are:  Hauptmann,  Suder- 
mann,  Heyse,  Heine,  Kant,  Schopenhauer, 
Mommsen,  Nietsche,  Goethe,  Schiller,  Schlegel, 
Hoffmansthal,  Fulda,  Haeckel,  Eucken, 
Wundt,  von  Hartmann,  von  Mach,  Uhland, 
Korner,  Reuckert,  Tieck,  Buerger,  Kleist, 
Geibel,  Fontane,  Hegel,  Freiligrath,  Grillpar- 
zer,  Hebbel,  Ludwig,  Freytag,  Spielhagen,  von 
Wildenbruch,  Meyer,  Keller,  von  Scheffel,  Deh- 
men,  Humboldt,  von  Liliencron,  Frenssen,  von 
Ranke,  Treitschke,  Lamprecht,  Hoffman,  von 
Arnim,  Grimm  Brothers,  Lessing,  Anzengru- 
ber,  Fichte,  Arndt,  Gutzkow,  Jean  Paul,  Wol- 
zogen,  Hartleben,  Schnitzler,  Halbe,  Dreyer, 
Hirschfeld,  Falke,  Mann,  George,  Schankal; 
further,  Clara  Viebig,  Helene  Boehlan  and 
Ricarda  Huch. 

Germany  has  also  a  Mark  Twain  in  William 
Busch,  and  another  in  Fritz  Reuter,  not  to  men- 
tion perhaps  the  most  famous  of  all  humorists, 
"Baron  Munchausen." 

Among  painters  are:  Liebermann,  von  Len- 
bach,  Bocklin,  von  Uhde,  Thoma,  von  Kaulbach, 
von  Stuck,  Leibl,  Klinger,  von  Menzel,  Berg- 


PRE-EMINENCE  IN  THE  ARTS         271 

mann,  Gundahl,  Berker,  Koester,  Diez,  Claren- 
bach,  von  Gebhardt,  von  Habermann,  Kampf, 
Janssen,  Triibner,  Albrecht,  Bantzer  and  Ditt- 
mann. 

Among  sculptors  are:  Lederer,  Klimsch, 
Gaul,  Kraus,  Tasehner,  the  painter  von  Stuck, 
Hahn,  Bermann,  von  Hildebrand,  Netzer, 
Schaper,  Lewin-Funke,  Schwegerle,  Janssen, 
Fassnacht,  Tuaillon  and  von  Gosen. 

Among  the  critics  and  authorities  on  art  are: 
Dr.  Berenson,  Dr.  Laufer,  Dr.  Valentiner,  Dr. 
Justi,  Dr.  Tschudi,  Hirth,  Friedlander,  Sarre, 
Cohn,  Kummel,  Muther  and  Dr.  Bode. 

In  music  Germany's  position  is  pre-eminent. 
The  names  of  her  great  musicians  are  univer- 
sally known  and  their  works  are  unrivalled: 
Beethoven,  Mozart,  Mendelssohn,  Schumann, 
Grieg,  Meyerbeer,  Liszt,  von  Weber,  Richard 
Strauss,  Wagner,  Brahms,  Schubert,  Bach, 
Hadyn,  Kienzl,  d' Albert,  Humperdinck,  Pfitz- 
ner,  Schreker,  Bittner,  Genss,  Weingartner, 
Neitzel,  Koenneke,  Waghalter,  Braunfels, 
Reger,  Prohaska,  von  Dohanyi,  Stange,  Xaver, 
Philipp,  Scharwenka,  Koch,  Hermann,  Gern- 
sheim,  Ertel,  Hummel,  Juan,  Noren,  Kami, 
Rezniceck,  Schonberg,  Fuchs,  Goldmark,  Kos- 
chat,  Reinhold,  Labor,  Schutt,  Leschetizky, 
Gradener,  Heuberger,  Krongold,  and  Poldini. 

Germany,   too,   has   produced  many   famous 


272      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

conductors,  singers,  and  instrumentalists. 
Among  the  conductors  are:  Damrosch,  Seidl, 
Thomas,  Zerrahn,  Henschel,  Paur,  Muck,  Mah- 
ler, Bergmann,  Gericke,  Nikisch,  Pohlig,  von 
der  Stucken  and  Leopold. 

The  singers  include:  Lili  Lehmann,  Frau 
Ritter-Gotze,  Mariame  Brandt,  Frau  Seidl- 
Kraus,  Fanny  Moran-Olden,  Milka  Ternina, 
Schumann-Heink,  Johanna  Gadsky,  Pauline 
Lucca,  Frida  Hempel,  Emma  Destinn,  Mme. 
Sembrich,  Julia  Culp,  Ella  Gmeiner,  Mme. 
Cahier,  Frieda  LangendorfT,  Margarete  Mat- 
zenauer,  Ottilie  Metzger-Lattermann,  Lula 
Mysz-Gmeiner,  Bost  Sucher,  Marie  Brema  and 
further:  Knote,  Jorn,  Barg,  Athes,  Jadlowker, 
Kirchhoff,  Schmedes,  Pennarini,  Naval,  Lieban, 
Kraus,  Slezak,  Urlus,  Sommer,  Feinhalz,  Heine- 
mann,  Gura,  Forsell,  Kniipfer,  Goritz,  Weil, 
Sistermans,  Perron,  Rvoy,  Messchaert  and  von 
Milde,  while  the  instrumentalists  are  a  legion. 

The  whole  attitude  of  the  German  public  to- 
ward art  is  different  from  that  which  obtains  in 
the  United  States  and  many  other  countries. 
Art  in  its  various  forms  is  an  integral  part  of 
education,  and  not  as  in  America,  a  mere  accom- 
plishment. The  German  public  is  devoted  to 
the  drama,  music  and  the  other  arts,  they  appre- 
ciate and  they  support  art  both  through  the  in- 
strumentality of  the  government  and  by  direct 


PRE-EMINENCE  IN  THE  ARTS         273 

patronage  to  an  extent  undreamed  of  in  this 
country. 

The  foundations  of  governmental  support  of 
art,  particularly  of  the  drama  and  music  were 
laid  long  ago.  When  what  is  now  Germany  was 
only  small  kingdoms  and  principalities,  each 
little  king,  prince,  elector  or  duke  had  in  his 
capital  his  own  state  theatre.  This  institution 
was  conducted  at  the  expense  of  the  public  treas- 
ury if  it  did  not  pay  its  own  way,  which  it  seldom 
did,  and  it  was  devoted  to  dramas  and  opera  of 
the  highest  type.  It  was  not  only  a  place  of 
amusement,  but  more  or  less  a  social  center  and 
an  educational  influence  of  the  highest  character. 

Large  cities  which  were  not  the  capitals  of 
rulers  in  emulation  of  the  capital  cities  opened 
their  own  municipal  theatres  and  opera  houses 
and  the  customs  thus  established  have  been  con- 
tinued, until  to-day  no  German  city  of  any  con- 
sequence is  without  its  city  theatre  and  several 
have  more  than  one,  in  addition  to  the  numerous 
private  theatres  which  have  of  course  sprung  up. 

These  municipal  theatres  are  thus  not  recent 
experiments  but  are  rich  with  the  traditions  of 
generations  and  are  not  unsuccessful  or  unappre- 
ciated rivals  of  commercial  theatres,  but  the 
standards  by  which  the  latter  are  measured. 
Among  the  older  city  theatres  are  those  of  Metz, 
1751;  Mannheim,  1777;  Ulm,  1781,  and  Nurem- 
berg, 1831. 


274      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

The  methods  followed  in  the  conduct  of  munic- 
ipal theatres  take  three  general  directions.  The 
city  owns  and  operates  the  theatre,  or  it  owns  it 
and  leases  it,  or  it  subsidizes  theatres  under  pri- 
vate management. 

Over  fifty  German  cities  own  their  own  thea- 
tres. Thirty-two  of  the  cities  have  populations 
of  over  80,000.  Even  very  small  cities  such  as 
Oppeln,  Schweidnitz,  Neisse  and  Bremerhaven, 
all  less  than  30,000  population,  have  city  thea- 
tres, the  latter  having  one  which  cost  $250,000  to 
erect. 

Berlin  has  recently  advanced  $500,000  towards 
the  erection  of  a  theatre  by  a  private  owner  which 
has  cost  $1,250,000  and  one  of  the  stipulations  is 
that  the  theatre  is  to  give  not  less  than  ten  per- 
formances per  season  for  elementary  school  chil- 
dren at  prices  not  to  exceed  12%  cents. 

Very  large  amounts  are  spent  in  German 
municipal  theatres,  losses  in  fact  that  would 
stagger  American  managers. 

The  deficit  at  Leipzig  for  1913  was  $225,000. 
Diisseldorf  spends  yearly  $110,000;  Mayence, 
$29,400;  Mannheim,  $125,000;  Kiel,  $65,000; 
Cologne,  $165,000;  Frankfort-on-Main,  $150,- 
000;  Dortmund,  $90,000;  Strassburg,  $27,500; 
Magdeburg,  $52,000,  and  Chemnitz,  $70,000. 

The  average  for  the  greater  part  of  the  towns 
is  not  less  than  $30,000  per  season  loss.     It  is 


PRE-EMINENCE  IN  THE  ARTS         275 

generally  more  expensive  for  a  city  to  operate  its 
own  theatre  than  to  lease  it  to  a  private  manager 
with  the  stipulation  that  certain  works  shall  be 
produced. 

But  these  great  losses,  or  so  they  would  be  re- 
garded in  this  country,  where  they  would  have 
the  effect  of  bankrupting  most  of  our  theatre 
managers,  are  not  considered  losses  any  more 
than  we  consider  money  spent  on  our  public 
school  system  or  on  our  public  libraries  as  losses. 
Indeed  the  deficits  represent  only  the  margin 
between  receipts  and  expenditures  and  the  thea- 
tres as  education  institutions  are  considered  as 
almost  paying  their  own  way  and  thus  as  the 
very  cheapest  form  of  education. 

The  effect  of  such  a  policy  is  widespread. 
The  theatre  enjoys  a  patronage  and  respect 
which  is  not  accorded  it  in  other  countries.  The 
classic  masterpieces  are  regularly  presented. 
Shakespeare  is  performed  ten  times  in  Germany 
to  once  in  all  English  speaking  countries  to- 
gether. His  works  are  not  "revived"  but  re- 
main on  the  stage.  The  best  of  the  dramatic  lit- 
erature of  all  the  world  is  given  its  place  on  the 
German  stage  and  the  German  public,  as  a  result, 
is  the  only  public  which  may  be  said  to  be  familiar 
with  the  dramatic  art  of  the  whole  world  in  its 
rich  accumulations. 

Of  the  greatest  importance,  too,  is  the  low  rate 


276      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

of  admission  charged  at  the  municipal  theatres. 
There  is  no  question  of  the  fact  that  the  public 
in  any  country  desires  and  will  attend  the  per- 
formances of  the  best  dramatic  literature  when 
it  has  been  properly  taught  to  know  what  the 
best  is  and  when  the  best  is  brought  within  the 
reach  of  its  purse. 

The  public  only  attends  performances  of  in- 
ferior works  when  they  are  cheap  and  when  it  is 
uneducated.  The  numerous  "blood  and  thun- 
der" melodramas  once  so  prevalent  on  the  Amer- 
ican stage  and  which  are  now  almost  the  sole 
recourse  of  the  moving  pictures,  are  a  reproach 
to  the  educational  system  of  the  United  States. 
The  educated  public  does  not  go  to  such  per- 
formances, or  such  portion  of  it  as  does  go  is 
driven  there  for  want  of  better  amusement 
within  its  financial  horizon.  The  existence  of 
such  shows  demonstrates  that  in  appreciation  of 
dramatic  art  the  public  is  almost  wholly  unedu- 
cated, is  in  fact  artistically  illiterate.  The  rea- 
son for  this  is  that  in  spite  of  the  enormous  ex- 
penditures for  education  purposes,  very  little  of 
it  is  devoted  to  the  development  of  true  culture. 

When  the  public  is  properly  educated  and 
when  the  finer  works  of  dramatic  art  are  pro- 
duced at  prices  within  their  reach,  the  drama  will 
become  the  same  reality  to  us  that  it  is  to  the 
German  public.     It  is  no  reproach  of  the  public 


PRE-EMINENCE  IN  THE  ARTS         277 

to  say  that  it  will  not  support  Shakespeare  and 
the  classics.  The  public  if  left  to  itself  to  pay 
an  admission  price  at  school  or  at  a  library  would 
be  but  poorly  educated.  It  should  not  be  ex- 
pected to  make  Shakespeare  pay  any  more  than 
it  makes  geography  pay.  The  province  of  the 
commercial  manager  does  not  lie  in  educating  the 
public  taste.  He  should  not  be  expected  to  do  so 
nor  criticised  for  seeking  only  productions  of 
profit,  for  otherwise  he  would  soon  disappear. 

The  real  fault  in  America  lies  in  the  ancient 
Puritanism  imported  from  England,  which  in  its 
bigotry  cut  off  this  branch  of  the  educational 
tree,  and  which  still  has  such  a  powerfully  reac- 
tionary influence  as  to  prevent  municipal  support 
of  theatres  as  a  means  of  education. 

The  exotic  character  of  the  influence  of  the 
drama  on  the  general  public  is  further  shown  by 
the  fact  that  the  theatre  is  first  of  all  a  social  insti- 
tution, the  best  phases  of  which  are  exclusively 
reserved  for  persons  of  wealth.  The  prices  of 
admission  are  so  high,  the  few  actors  who  enjoy 
a  vogue  so  excessively  salaried  and  the  central 
location  of  the  theatres  demands  such  a  great  real 
estate  investment  that  the  doors  of  the  theatre 
are  practically  closed  to  the  general  public,  espe- 
cially since  the  public  looks  at  the  social  side  first 
and  refuses  to  occupy  the  cheaper  grades  of  thea- 
tres and  see  inferior  works  on  the  stage  than  to 
see  the  better  works  from  the  cheaper  seats. 


278      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

Thus  social  pretension  takes  precedence  over 
love  of  art.  Such  is  not  the  case  in  Germany. 
The  best  play  is  sought  out  and  witnessed  irre- 
spective of  the  particular  part  of  the  theatre  in 
which  the  individual's  means  confine  him.  Love 
of  display  is  secondary  to  love  of  art,  but  Amer- 
ica will  continue  to  prefer  the  former  until  the 
public  becomes  really  educated  and  demands  the 
art  irrespective  of  the  social  phase  of  the  event. 

The  large  deficits  regularly  met  by  German 
cities  in  supporting  their  theatres  has  the  effect 
of  enabling  a  standard  of  excellence  to  be  main- 
tained irrespective  of  financial  considerations. 
This  standard  forms  and  purifies  the  taste  of  the 
public  and  in  the  criterion  to  which  the  commer- 
cial managers  must  conform.  The  whole  tone 
of  the  drama  is  thus  raised  in  a  way  which  would 
not  be  otherwise  possible,  and  the  theatre,  thus 
as  an  established  and  recognized  institution  at- 
tracts to  artistic  careers  a  much  higher  class  of 
men  and  women  than  are  attracted  under  other 
circumstances.  This  larger  body  of  more  com- 
petent artists  in  turn  enables  plays  to  be  pro- 
duced at  less  expense  and  with  greater  artistic 
effects,  and  thus  there  is  established,  not  the 
vicious  circle  of  commercial  management,  the 
further  debasement  of  public  taste  by  the  man- 
agers at  the  behest  of  an  already  debased  taste, 
but  the  beneficent  circle  of  an  improved  perform- 


PRE-EMINENCE  IN  THE  ARTS         279 

ance  constantly  purifying  public  taste  and  in  turn 
responding  with  higher  efforts  to  such  improved 
taste. 

Opera  in  Germany  occupies  an  equally  impor- 
tant position.  The  municipal  theatres  are  de- 
voted both  to  opera  and  drama  concurrently,  and 
there  are  over  150  houses  in  all  in  which  grand 
operas  are  given  during  either  part  or  all  of  the 
season. 

Germany  has  21  conservatories  conducted  or 
subsidized  by  the  government  besides  hundreds 
of  private  conservatories.  Over  fifty  musical 
journals  are  published  in  Germany  to  nine  in  the 
United  States.  These  figures  are  merely  an  in- 
dex of  the  enormous  difference  in  which  Germans 
and  Americans  hold  music,  one  of  the  greatest 
cultural  influences  at  the  command  of  mankind. 

In  pictorial  and  plastic  arts  the  same  difference 
is  found.  Art  galleries  are  more  numerous  and 
the  only  approach  America  has  as  yet  made  in 
this  respect  is  in  the  collections  made  by  men  of 
great  wealth  as  matters-  of  self  advertisement. 
These  collections  will  have  but  small  influence 
until  they  are  made  to  serve  educational  purposes. 

This  summary,  though  necessarily  brief,  will 
suffice,  however,  to  show  that  the  arts  in  Germany 
are  not  submerged  by  science  and  industry.  In- 
deed artistic  activity  is  far  greater  than  ever  be- 
fore.    In  America  the  public  is  devoted  to  sports, 


280      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

baseball  and  the  like,  and  on  the  social  side  to 
auxiliary  church  activities,  which  are  almost 
wholly  unknown  in  Germany,  for  the  German 
takes  his  religion  seriously  and  not  as  a  sewing 
society  or  club.  The  energy  which  the  American 
devotes  to  such  pursuits  the  German  puts  into 
art.  There  can  be  little  doubt  of  the  superiority 
of  the  German  plan. 

And  this  devotion  to  art  is  not  only  of  benefit 
to  Germany,  but  to  all  the  world,  for  Germany 
is  the  mecca  of  the  art  student  and  the  modern 
well  spring  of  artistic  and  musical  progress,  and 
her  art  leaders  are  the  heralds  of  new  develop- 
ments in  art  in  other  countries.  Everything  in 
this  respect  that  she  is  doing  for  herself,  and  she 
is  doing  wonders,  she  is  likewise  doing  for  the 
rest  of  the  world,  and  instead  of  her  efforts  and 
accomplishments  being  minimized  and  dispar- 
aged, other  countries  owe  it  to  their  own  progress 
to  recognize  and  emulate  her  achievements. 

One  of  the  most  widely  discussed  topics  of  the 
present  is  that  of  "Kultur."  Every  time  an 
Englishman  hears  a  Frenchman's  account  of 
something,  he  claims  the  Germans  have  done  or 
undone,  he  growls  German  culture.  He  has  no 
very  clear  idea  of  what  German  "Kultur"  is. 
He  imagines  it  is  the  same  thing  that  the  English 
word  culture  stands  for,  but  the  similarity  of  the 
English  word  culture   and  the   German  word 


PRE-EMINENCE  IN  THE  ARTS         281 

"Kultur,"  extends  no  further  than  the  sound  and 
spelling.  Culture  as  used  in  English  means 
about  what  "Manierlichkeit"  in  German  means. 
But  "Kultur"  in  German,  if  properly  translated 
into  English  would  be,  as  nearly  as  may  be  stated, 
civilization  ideals.  German  Kultur  is  that 
whole  body  of  philosophy,  organized  thought, 
morality,  statesmanship  and  social  relations, 
which  constituted  the  contribution  of  Germany 
toward  the  advancement  and  progress  of  the 
world  ideally,  morally,  spiritually  and  materially. 
I  have  recounted  some  of  the  most  notable  ex- 
ponents of  German  Kultur.  All  that  they  have 
done,  all  that  all  Germans  have  done  for  Ger- 
many and  for  the  world  at  large,  makes  up  a 
great  sum  in  the  totals  of  progress  towards  a 
higher  plane  of  world  civilization  and  enlighten- 
ment. That  is  German  Kultur,  and  no  nation 
or  people  has  ever  contributed  more  toward 
world  culture  than  has  the  German.  For  that 
reason  the  Germans  may  well  be  proud  of  their 
Kultur  for,  however  much  it  is  misunderstood, 
or  deliberately  misrepresented,  it  is  the  truth  and 
the  truth  in  time  will  prevail. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

THE   WORLD'S   DEBT   TO   GERMAN   TECHNIQUE 

IN  recounting  the  enormous  progress  Ger- 
many has  made,  it  is  difficult  to  avoid  creat- 
ing the  impression  that  it  has  all  been  done 
by  Germany  solely  for  her  own  individual  good. 

When  a  more  comprehensive  view  is  taken, 
however,  it  will  be  seen  that  while  the  effort  has 
of  course  been  primarily  to  advance  Germany 
and  Germany's  interests,  the  result  has  been  of 
incalculable  benefit  to  mankind  as  a  whole. 
Though  Germany  may  reap  small  profit  and  a 
certain  prestige,  civilization  as  a  whole  is  the  real 
beneficiary,  and  the  temporary  advantage  which 
the  German  technician  gains  for  himself  by  a  new 
discovery  or  improvement  is  but  the  merest  drop 
in  the  bucket  to  the  benefits  he  pours  out  to  the 
world  as  a  whole. 

The  connections  between  modern  nations  in 
commerce  and  industry  are  so  innumerable  and 
intimate  that  the  progress  of  each  is  inseparable 
from  the  progress  of  the  others  and  the  pioneer 
can  at  best  keep  but  a  few  years  in  advance  of 
the  procession  of  other  progressive  nations.     In 

282 


DEBT  TO  GERMAN  TECHNIQUE        283 

considering  German  triumphs  in  the  field  of 
technics,  thus,  the  idea  of  isolation  must  be  dis- 
carded. Germany  is  no  more  isolated  from  the 
world  than  the  State  of  New  York  is  from  the 
other  States  of  the  Union,  as  far  as  interchange 
of  ideas  and  discoveries  is  concerned,  and  to  what- 
ever extent  she  is  in  advance  is  due  alone  to  the 
slowness  of  other  nations  to  adopt  her  improve- 
ments rather  than  any  effort  or  possibility  on  her 
own  part  to  keep  them  from  coming  into  general 
use. 

Indeed,  so  quickly  often  are  her  improvements 
adopted  and  so  widespread  is  their  use,  that  their 
origin  is  quickly  forgotten  and  it  comes  as  a  sur- 
prise to  the  student  of  the  history  of  technical 
progress  to  find  where  they  originated. 

This  is  one  of  the  reasons  why  the  numerous 
detractors  of  Germany,  acting  under  English 
inspiration,  and  rushing  forward  to  controvert 
the  rightful  claims  of  Germany  have  denied  the 
facts  of  her  progress  through  being  ignorant  of 
what  she  has  really  done. 

A  brief  summary,  therefore,  of  some  of  Ger- 
many's leading  contributions  to  the  world's  prog- 
ress is  desirable,  to  refute  the  reckless  and  igno- 
rant claims  of  her  detractors. 

An  index  of  her  great  progress,  as  has  been 
mentioned,  is  in  the  number  of  her  technical  pub- 
lications.    In  1910  a  total  of  15,540  technical 


284      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

books  was  published  throughout  the  world,  of 
which  10,400  volumes  were  in  the  German  lan- 
guage and  2,000  in  French,  while  the  technical 
works  of  all  the  English  speaking  nations  to- 
gether amounted  to  but  2,100  volumes.  These 
figures  do  not  include  technical  periodicals  in  the 
number  of  which  Germany  also  outstrips  all 
other  nations  combined. 

Another  valuable  index  of  her  achievements  is 
seen  in  the  awards  of  the  Nobel  prizes.  As  is 
well  known  Alfred  Nobel  established  a  fund  for 
the  purpose  of  rewarding  the  leaders  the  world 
over  in  physics,  chemistry,  medicine,  literature, 
and  peace  endeavors.  These  prizes  are  awarded 
by  a  board  selected  by  Swedish  and  Norwegian 
officials.  Although  Nobel  originally  intended 
the  prizes  to  go  to  men  who  were  just  making 
their  maiden  achievements,  as  a  means  of  freeing 
them  from  financial  worries  so  that  they  could 
pursue  their  work,  the  spirit  in  which  he  made 
the  bequest  has  been  disregarded  and  the  awards 
now  go  to  those  who  are  pre-eminently  great  in 
their  various  fields.  It  serves,  therefore,  for  the 
present  as  a  measure  of  the  greatest  achieve- 
ments, and  Germany's  position  in  winning  such 
a  large  proportion  of  the  prizes  proves  to  be  even 
more  notable  than  might  be  the  case  had  the 
original  spirit  of  the  awards  been  preserved. 

Five  prizes  of  some  $40,000  each  are  distrib- 


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DEBT  TO  GERMAN  TECHNIQUE        285 

uted  yearly.  In  some  instances  a  prize  is  di- 
vided in  two.  In  the  13  years  (from  1901  to 
1913)  during  which  the  awards  have  been  made, 
Germany  has  won  17  full  and  2  half  prizes  of  a 
total  of  65  prizes  possible.  She  received  just 
twice  as  many  as  France  (7  full  and  4  half  prizes) 
and  240  per  cent,  more  than  England,  the  next 
best  competitor  (7  full  and  1  half  prize).  A 
few  prizes  in  addition  went  to  German  professors 
connected  with  foreign  universities. 

These  figures  indicate  as  well  as  may  be  done 
the  prestige  which  Germany  commands  in  the 
world  of  modern  achievement.  The  fact  that 
the  prizes  are  awarded  by  Swedish  and  Nor- 
wegian tribunals  indicates  their  impartiality  for 
the  tendency  of  public  opinion  in  Sweden,  if  pub- 
he  opinion  influenced  the  awards  in  any  way 
would  be  toward  jealousy  of  Germany  rather 
than  toward  any  partiality. 

Among  the  most  notable  of  Germany's  tri- 
umphs are  those  in  the  field  of  chemistry  and 
physics  which  she  has  in  modern  times  almost 
wholly  occupied.  The  chemical  discoveries  of 
Germany  has  been  in  both  organic  and  inorganic 
chemistry,  including  the  fields  of  medicine,  phar- 
macy, electro-chemistry,  metallurgy,  and  the 
like. 

Prominent  among  German  chemists  who  have 
been  awarded  the  Nobel  prizes  are:     Professors 


286      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

Ostwald,  Fischer,  Buchner,  Wallach,  von  Boeyer, 
and  von  Hoff;  while  Professors  Rontgen, 
Philipp  Brand  and  Wien  were  awarded  the 
Nobel  prizes  in  physics.  In  medicine  the 
Nobel  prizes  in  Germany  to  Prof.  Ehrlich;  the 
discovery  of  salvarsan  (606)  ;  Koch,  bacte- 
riology; Behring,  diphtheria,  serum,  and  Kos- 
sel,  Professor  of  Physiology  at  Heidelberg. 

Other  noted  German  chemists  and  physicists 
are  Prof.  Virchow,  cellular  pathology  and  archae- 
ological anthropology ;  Liebig,  carbon  compounds 
and  chloroform;  Bunsen,  burner,  and  with 
Woehler,  aluminum;  Welsbach,  gas  mantle; 
Merck,  coal  tar  by-products,  and  Pintsch,  gas. 

Many  of  these  men  are  eminent  in  other 
branches  as  well,  and  in  scientific  work  generally 
are  a  large  number  of  names  of  men  whose  activi- 
ties are  by  no  means  identified  with  any  one 
branch,  such  as  Professors  Helmholtz,  Haeckel, 
Eucken,  Clausius,  and  Wiedemann. 

Closely  allied  with  discoveries  in  chemistry 
and  physics  are  men  eminent  in  electricity,  and 
in  this  field  is  to  be  found  perhaps  the  greatest 
of  the  world's  inventors,  Werner  von  Siemens, 
whose  most  noted  achievement  was  in  the  devel- 
opment of  electric  dynamo.  This  machine  has 
made  possible  practically  the  whole  field  of 
modern  applied  electricity.  Siemens  is  admit- 
tedly a  far  greater  inventor  than  Edison.     He 


DEBT  TO  GERMAN  TECHNIQUE        287 

built  in  1879  the  first  electric  street  railway  sys- 
tem, the  first  third  rail  system,  and  he  invented 
the  glass  insulator  for  telegraph  wires,  and  the 
means  of  locating  breaks  in  undersea  cables. 
He  invented  electro-plating  and  numberless  im- 
provements of  the  greatest  value  in  all  branches 
of  electricity.  The  Siemens  companies,  includ- 
ing the  branches  in  foreign  countries,  employed 
in  1912  more  than  80,000  people,  and  it  is  today 
the  largest  electrical  concern  in  the  world.  Sie- 
mens also  invented  among  numerous  other  im- 
portant inventions  the  glass  furnace  which  bears 
his  name  and  which  made  the  open  hearth  fur- 
nace possible. 

Other  prominent  names  in  electricity  and  the 
allied  art  of  power  production  include  Hertz,  the 
discoverer  of  Hertzian  waves,  the  basis  of  wire- 
less telegraphy;  Goldsmidt,  who  improved  the 
wireless  system  to  such  an  extent  that  Germany 
can  transmit  messages  4,000  to  6,000  miles, 
greatly  outdistancing  the  Marconi  system. 

The  Bell  telephone  is  in  reality  the  invention 
of  a  German,  Edward  Reis,  Bell  simply  improv- 
ing the  Reis  apparatus,  and  very  narrowly  es- 
caped having  his  patents  annulled  for  lack  of 
originality. 

In  physical  apparatus,  such  as  telescopes, 
microscopes,  and  photographic  instruments  and 
lenses  of  various  kinds,   Germany  is  supreme. 


288      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

The  success  of  modern  photography  is  almost 
wholly  due  to  the  invention  of  Jena  glass,  and 
Zeiss,  Goertz,  and  Voightlander  lenses  are  known 
as  the  best.  The  materials  of  photography,  such 
as  Barytha  coated  paper  and  the  multitude  of 
chemical  preparations  used  are  all  from  formulas 
of  German  origin. 

Prof.  Gauss  and  Weber  constructed  at  Goet- 
tingen,  1833,  the  first  telegraphic  plant,  while 
Prof.  Steinheil  of  Munich  shortly  afterwards  im- 
proved the  telegraph,  being  the  first  to  use  the 
earth  as  a  return  circuit,  a  method  which  is  now 
being  used  for  both  low  and  high  tension  electric 
transmission  systems. 

The  first  high  tension  long  distance  electric 
transmission  system  was  constructed  in  1891  be- 
tween Laufen  and  Frankf ort-on-the-Main,  a  dis- 
tance of  45  miles,  utilizing  the  water  power  of  the 
Rhine  for  the  operation  of  machinery  and  the 
supplying  of  light  at  the  exhibition  at  Frankfort 
in  that  year. 

The  development  of  the  electric  light  in  its 
different  forms  and  the  competition  to  which  the 
makers  of  gas  lamps  were  forced  is  one  of  the 
great  romances  of  modern  technic.  The  incan- 
descent lamp  first  became  known  as  an  invention 
of  Edison,  but  was  in  reality  the  work  of  a  Ger- 
man in  his  employ  who  was  unable  to  gain  justice 
in  American  courts.     The  old  Edison  lamp  was 


DEBT  TO  GERMAN  TECHNIQUE        289 

some  years  ago  superseded  by  the  various  bril- 
liant forms  of  lamps  using  tungsten,  tantalum 
and  other  filaments  in  place  of  the  carbon  fila- 
ment, and  very  lately  by  the  nitrogen  lamp,  in 
which  the  globe  is  filled  with  nitrogen  gas  in- 
stead of  being,  as  in  the  old  "Edison  lamp"  a 
partial  vacuum.  Germany  is  producing  a  5,000 
candle  power  nitrogen  lamp,  but  in  this  country 
none  above  2,000  have  been  made.  The  improve- 
ments are  all  of  German  origin  and  in  the  case 
of  the  tungsten  lamp,  $1,010,000  and  a  large 
royalty  was  paid  for  five  patents,  whereupon 
the  arbitrary  and  meaningless  trade  name  of 
"Mazda"  was  given  to  the  lamp,  in  connection 
with  the  name  of  Edison.  Doubtless  the  term 
mazda  will  presently  be  dropped  and  the  name 
Edison  used  to  designate  the  German  inven- 
tions. 

The  Nerst  lamp,  the  various  improvements  in 
arc  lamps,  the  flaming  arc  and  others  are  also 
all  German  inventions,  as  are  the  improvements 
in  small  coal  gas  lamps  such  as  the  Welsbach 
already  noted,  and  the  large  coal  gas  lamps  of 
2,000  to  3,000  candle  power,  recent  improve- 
ments not  as  yet  introduced  in  this  country. 

Another  notable  invention  of  the  utmost  im- 
portance which  has  been  referred  to  in  an  earlier 
chapter  is  air  nitrate,  the  result,  as  are  many  Ger- 
man inventions  of  collaborations  of  several  in- 


290      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

ventors,  or  of  numerous  inventors  attached  to 
the  great  manufacturing  or  chemical  concerns. 

Similarly  formation  of  ozone  from  the  air  by 
means  of  ozonizing  apparatus,  and  the  use  of  such 
ozonizers  to  purify  the  air  of  crowded  places  and 
for  therapeutic  purposes  and  for  the  purification 
of  the  water  supply  of  cities,  as  in  St.  Petersburg 
( "Petrograd" ) ,  is  a  German  invention. 

German  superiority  in  railroading  is  not  gen- 
erally recognized  in  America.  The  Marienf  elf  e- 
Zossen  experimental  road  near  Berlin  has  shown 
speeds  of  German  electric  locomotives  up  to  125 
miles  an  hour,  while  the  best  in  this  country  has 
been  only  68.  The  United  States  formerly  led 
in  steam  locomotives,  but  is  now  far  behind,  while 
in  steam  power  plant  work  Germany  has  outdis- 
tanced us,  particularly  in  the  superheated  steam 
engine.  Only  in  the  very  largest  engines  does 
the  United  States  compare  favorably  with  Ger- 
many, while  in  the  average  and  small  sizes,  our 
engines  consume  from  two  to  three  times  as  much 
steam  in  producing  an  equal  output  of  work, 
which  means  the  wasting  annually  of  millions  of 
dollars'  worth  of  coal  in  the  production  of  steam 
as  compared  with  German  practice. 

In  the  development  of  the  steam  turbine,  the 
gas  engine  using  blast  furnace  gases,  and  oil  and 
gasoline  engines,  the  United  States  is  similarly 
burdened  with  inferior  machinery.     Diesel,  the 


DEBT  TO  GERMAN  TECHNIQUE        291 

famous  inventor  of  the  oil  engine,  in  which  crude 
oils  and  tar  are  being  utilized  for  fuel  instead  of 
the  higher  priced  gasoline,  stands  at  the  very  head 
of  the  inventors  of  Germany  who  have  endowed 
the  world  with  great  inventions.  Even  the  Eng- 
lish battleships  use  Diesel  engines.  The  vast  sav- 
ings due  to  the  use  of  this  engine  are  indicated 
when  it  is  understood  that  12  per  cent,  is  the 
highest  efficiency  of  the  very  best  steam  engines, 
while  the  Diesel  engine's  efficiency  is  28  per  cent. 
That  is,  from  fuels  of  equivalent  heating  value, 
the  Diesel  engine  will  produce  more  than  twice 
as  much  power  as  will  the  steam  engine. 

In  navigation  Germany  has  produced  among 
other  notable  inventions,  the  Schlick  stabilizing 
apparatus  and  the  wrater  balance  system,  pre- 
venting rolling  of  ships,  and  the  wireless-di- 
rected boat.  Her  great  liners  are  admittedly  the 
peer  of  all  merchant  ships  and  her  naval  vessels 
are  now  recognized  as  the  equal  of  any,  while 
the  exploits  of  her  submarines  have  placed  them 
at  the  very  front  of  naval  achievement. 

In  air  navigation,  all  the  progress  that  has 
been  made  is  largely  the  result  of  the  sacrifice  of 
Lilienthal,  whose  work  in  1896  was  taken  up 
after  his  tragic  death  by  a  fall  from  a  biplane 
with  a  2/4  horse  power  motor,  by  Chanute  in  this 
country  and  later  carried  more  fully  into  prac- 
tice by  the  Wright  brothers,  who  made  their  first 


292      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

flight  with  a  power  propelled  biplane  at  Kitty 
Hawk,  December  17,  1903.  Today  Germany 
has  a  fleet  of  aeroplanes  which  hold  the  world's 
records  in  all  kinds  of  flights,  and  in  addition  she 
has  built  many  dirigibles ;  as  invented  by  Zeppe- 
lin, Grosse,  Parsefal,  Schiitte-Lanz;  her  fleets  of 
these  air  vessels  being  the  greatest  in  the  world. 

In  automobiling  the  Daimler  motor  was  the 
first  in  the  field  and  the  American  Selden  patent 
so  long  contested  was  finally  upset  on  this  ground. 

In  armament,  the  guns  of  the  Krupp  works 
have  international  fame,  in  fact  the  very  name  is 
synonymous  with  the  best  in  this  line.  The 
Mannlicher  rifle  too,  is  among  the  best  of  the 
world's  small  arms,  while  the  Mauser  rifle  is  like- 
wise of  world  wide  fame.  The  guns  invented  by 
a  German,  Gathmann,  in  this  country,  and  the 
42  centimeter  Krupp  howitzer  are  unrivalled 
products. 

In  fields  too  numerous  to  mention,  Germany 
has  scored  triumphs,  such  as  in  electric  farming, 
electric  mining,  in  the  by-products  of  coal  tar 
from  which  her  famous  dyes  are  made,  as  well  as 
numerous  pharmaceutical  substances  and  medici- 
nal serums  and  preparations  such  as  those  which 
are  utilized  to  produce  "twilight  sleep,"  the  great- 
est boon  of  its  kind  since  the  invention  of  anes- 
thetics, in  city  planning  and  city  operation,  in  the 
sewage  disposal  systems,  the  Imhoff  tank  and  the 


DEBT  TO  GERMAN  TECHNIQUE        293 

Emscher  tank  representing  the  latest  improve- 
ments, the  blue  gas  and  tank  system  which  en- 
ables the  shipment  of  gas  and  the  consequent 
elimination  of  gas  mains,  and  in  metallurgy,  as 
in  electro-steels  where  she  is  ten  years  ahead  of 
this  country. 

And  it  is  not  to  be  forgotten  that  in  the  art 
preservative  of  arts,  Germany  has  scored  the 
greatest  of  triumphs.  Guttenberg  was  the  first 
to  make  use  of  movable  type,  Koenig  invented 
the  cylinder  power  press,  while  a  German,  Mer- 
genthaler,  in  this  country  produced  the  linotype. 
The  half-tone  process  and  rotogravure,  the  latest 
printing  improvements,  are  also  German  inven- 
tions. 

In  addition  to  the  technique  of  science  and  in- 
dustry, Germany  has  developed  to  a  marked,  in- 
deed to  a  pre-eminent  extent,  the  technique  of 
administration;  that  is,  the  best  way  of  doing 
things,  the  right  way  to  do  the  right  thing  at  the 
right  time,  both  industrially  and  governmentally. 
The  leaders  of  the  German  army,  of  the  navy, 
of  the  legislative  and  executive  branches  of  the 
government,  of  banking  and  of  great  industrial 
undertakings,  of  education  and  agricultural  pur- 
suits are  men  who  apply  the  German  spirit  of 
technique  to  administration  no  less  than  it  is  ap- 
plied to  industry. 

Notable  among  the  great  names  of  contempo- 


294      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

rary  Germans  of  affairs  are  Von  Hindenberg, 
the  hero  of  the  East  Prussian-Poland  campaign, 
Von  Moltke,  head  of  the  General  Staff,  Count 
Haseler,  the  grand  old  man  of  the  German  army, 
and  Grand  Admiral  von  Koester,  head  of  the 
navy  league  of  1,250,000  members,  the  grand  old 
man  of  the  German  navy  whose  active  work  is 
being  carried  on  in  its  present  fulfilment  by  Von 
Tirpitz,  Count  Zeppelin,  the  popular  hero  of 
aeronautics,  Alfred  Ballin,  the  moving  spirit  of 
Germany's  oversea  commerce,  Otto  von  Gwin- 
ner,  the  greatest  of  Germany's  bankers  and  the 
builder  of  the  Bagdad  and  other  great  foreign 
railroads,  Emil  Rathenau,  head  of  the  Allgemeine 
Electricitats  Gesellschaft,  a  billion  dollar  elec- 
trical concern,  August  Thyssen,  a  coal  and  iron 
Carnegie,  and  August  Scherl,  the  world's  great- 
est publisher,  with  five  dailies  and  a  dozen  week- 
lies of  enormous  circulation. 

The  list  could  be  extended  almost  indefinitely 
with  the  names  of  Germans  equally  if  not  better 
known,  though  perhaps  of  limited  fame  outside  of 
Germany  itself. 

Such  men  are  not,  as  Germans  as  a  rule  are 
not,  self  advertisers.  Germany  has  been  content 
to  pursue  her  own  way  and  achieve  her  own 
achievements  unostentatiously.  She  has  not  con- 
cerned herself  to  any  extent  to  herald  her  ideas 
or  to  boast  of  her  progress,  and  for  that  reason 
her  accomplishments  are  but  little  known. 


DEBT  TO  GERMAN  TECHNIQUE        295 

But  unheralded  or  not,  their  influence  is  be- 
ginning to  make  itself  universally  felt,  and  Eu- 
rope has  already  realized  as  this  country  must 
soon  do,  that  Germany  is  the  pace  maker  of 
progress  and  that  her  work  must  be  recognized 
and  emulated  if  we  are  not  to  drop  too  far  behind. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

THE   MUTUAL   INTERESTS   OF   GERMANY   AND 
THE    UNITED    STATES 

IN  the  great  melting  pot  of  the  United  States, 
into  which  so  many  races  have  been  thrown, 
the  fusion  that  we  know  today  as  Americans 
is  a  far  different  fusion  than  that  of  half  a  cen- 
tury ago.  Although  the  individual  is  cast  in  the 
institutions  of  the  country  and  takes  the  impress 
of  the  mould  of  language  and  civil  customs,  and 
calls  himself  an  Anglo-Saxon,  he  is  only  an 
Anglo-Saxon  by  tradition  and  label;  for  in  real- 
ity his  metal  is  very  different  from  the  metal  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon  which  has  preserved  itself  in 
England. 

Thus,  though  in  language,  in  law  and  in  gov- 
ernmental procedure  and  literary  traditions  Eng- 
lish, Americans  are  of  such  complex  derivation 
as  to  be  entirely  distinct  from  the  races  out  of 
which  they  have  been  formed,  and  from  none  are 
they  much  more  distinct  than  from  the  modern 
Englishman.  That  there  is  a  real  racial  antipa- 
thy to  the  modern  Englishman  is  shown  by  the 
sub-surface  hostility  which  Americans  meet  in 

296 


INTERESTS  OF  GERMANY  AND  U.  S.      297 

England  and  in  London  especially.  This  is 
glossed  over  and  concealed  by  the  self  interest  of 
those  in  authority,  and  the  real  attitude  of  the 
two  countries  is  thus  not  actually  understood  ex- 
cept by  the  few  who  have  travelled  abroad  and 
have  brought  home  by  word  of  mouth  the  truth. 

The  action  of  England  during  the  Civil  War 
in  contributing  as  far  as  was  in  her  power  to  the 
attempt  to  destroy  the  Union  proved  her  true 
attitude.  Her  present  assumption  of  friendly 
interest  arises  solely  out  of  the  necessitous  posi- 
tion in  which  she  finds  herself. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  English  strain  in  the 
American  national  genealogy  is  less  in  volume 
than  either  the  German  or  the  Irish.  That  is  to 
say,  including  those  of  pure  English,  Irish,  and 
German  stock  and  those  having  such  strains  in 
the  blood  in  whatever  degree,  the  German  stock 
is  the  largest  single  element. 

The  investigation  of  the  racial  strains  of  Amer- 
icans has  been  undertaken  by  a  number  of  au- 
thorities, and  counting  the  population  here  at  the 
time  of  the  Revolutionary  War  and  the  subse- 
quent immigration  and  making  proper  allowance 
for  increases,  the  estimates  agree  that  the  Ger- 
man element  is  now  the  largest  single  element. 

Assuming  that  there  had  been  no  intermar- 
riage of  races,  and  allowing  an  equal  rate  of 
increase  for  all,  which  is  rather  an  unfair  assump- 


298      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

tion  for  Germans  as  they  multiply  faster  than 
other  races,  there  would  now  be  from  20,000,000 
to  25,000,000  pure  Germans  here,  10,000,000  to 
12,000,000  pure  English,  and  13,000,000  to  15,- 
000,000  pure  Irish.  This  disregards  the  Scotch, 
Welsh,  and  Canadian  elements  which  are  of  lim- 
ited extent.  Scandinavians,  French  and  other 
Latin  stocks,  Slavs  and  Hebrews  constitute  some 
20,000,000.  The  remainder  of  the  population  is 
of  Negro,  Indian,  and  Oriental  stock. 

There  are,  of  course,  due  to  intermarriage  no 
such  numbers  of  pure  Germans,  English,  or 
Irish,  but  allowing  an  equal  tendency  to  inter- 
marriage, the  diffusion  would  be  proportionately 
equal,  so  that  that  affects  each  race  in  the  same 
manner  and  hence  does  not  enter  into  the  calcu- 
lation. The  diffusion  in  fact  is  so  great  that  it 
is  quite  likely  that  50  per  cent,  of  Americans,  if 
not  more,  have  some  strain  of  German  blood  in 
them,  while  perhaps  50  per  cent,  have  Irish  blood, 
and  50  per  cent.  English  blood,  and  50  per  cent. 
Latin  or  other  strains,  the  several  50  per  cents 
overlapping  each  other,  with  many  individuals 
having  half  a  dozen  or  more  strains  of  blood. 

The  investigations  prove  conclusively  that  the 
German  element  is  the  largest  single  element, 
that  German  characteristics  and  German  meth- 
ods of  thought  are  more  characteristic  of  Ameri- 
cans than  are  English  characteristics  and  meth- 


INTERESTS  OF  GERMANY  AND  U.  S.      299 

ods,  and  that  America  is  certainly  much  more  a 
Germanic  than  a  British  nation. 

The  marked  tendency  of  Germans  immigrat- 
ing to  this  country  to  become  naturalized  citizens 
and  the  complete  fusion  of  their  interests  with 
American  interests  as  compared  with  the  reluc- 
tance of  British  subjects  to  become  citizens  and 
the  aloofness  with  which  they  maintain  them- 
selves, prove  still  further  that  American  and 
British  have  less  affinity  for  each  other  than  have 
Americans  and  Germans. 

Nor  is  the  advent  of  the  German  a  recent  one 
in  this  country.  New  York  was  at  one  time 
known  as  New  Netherlands  and  was  settled  by 
the  Dutch,  a  low-German  race,  while  Germans 
from  the  various  kingdoms  and  states  which 
make  up  the  present  German  Empire  came  here 
in  very  large  numbers  at  very  early  dates. 

Peter  Minnewit  from  Wesel,  Germany,  in 
1626  bought  Manhattan  Island  and  he  was  its 
first  Governor.  Jacob  Leisler  of  Frankfort, 
Governor  of  New  York,  was  executed  in  1691,  a 
patriot  martyr  of  his  adopted  country.  Williatai 
Penn  was  from  Krefeld,  while  Peter  Zenger, 
from  the  Pfalz,  in  1730  in  New  York  established 
the  freedom  of  the  press. 

Germans  have  fought  for  America.  Steuben, 
Von  Kalb,  Osterhaus,  Custer  (Koster),  Schurz, 
Sigel  and  numerous  others  are  high  on  the  roll  of 


300      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

fame,  while  187,000  Germans  fought  for  the 
Union  in  the  Civil  War. 

In  business  and  commerce  the  list  of  men  of 
German  birth  and  parentage  is  almost  endless. 
Roebling,  Havemeyer,  Guggenheim,  Spreckles, 
Brill,  Weyerhauser,  Astor,  Frick,  Heinze, 
Drexel,  Herreshof,  Wanamaker,  Westinghouse, 
and  Rockefeller  are  names  so  well  known  that 
their  German  origin  is  almost  forgotten. 

Thus  Germans  from  the  earliest  times,  with 
increasing  importance  have  occupied  the  fore- 
most places  in  America,  and  these  facts,  so  well 
known  to  Germans,  account  for  the  feeling  of 
injustice  under  which  the  large  German  element 
of  our  population  labors  in  the  present  fictitious 
state  of  public  opinion,  so  unconscionably  fo- 
mented by  our  pro-British  press. 

The  German  in  this  country  has  not  made  his 
influence  felt  as  a  German  at  any  time,  as  he 
takes  but  little  interest  in  political  preferment, 
though  a  conscientious  citizen  and  voter  and  his 
interests  become  so  thoroughly  identified  with  the 
interests  of  his  adopted  country  that  he  does  not 
make  himself  a  political  issue.  There  is  never, 
has  never  been  and  will  never  be  in  this  country 
a  German  "problem,"  in  the  sense  that  other 
immigrant  races  create  problems.  The  very 
suggestion  of  such  a  thing  indicates  how  impos- 
sible it  is  and  proves  how  thoroughly  and  com- 


INTERESTS  OF  GERMANY  AND  U.  S.      301 

pletely  the  German  becomes  an  American.  He 
fuses  immediately  as  no  other  nationality  fuses. 

This  lack  of  self  assertiveness  as  a  German 
and  the  German's  lack  of  interest  in  politics  has 
permitted  the  country  to  be  dominated  to  a  great 
extent  by  the  more  politically  inclined  Irish,  espe- 
cially in  local  affairs,  and  nationally  by  the  poli- 
ticians of  the  old  English  administrative  class, 
who  in  Virginia  and  the  New  England  States 
handed  down  from  generation  to  generation 
largely  of  lawyers,  the  traditions  and  ambitions 
of  political  career. 

Thus  though  but  little  seen  on  the  surface,  the 
German  element  entertains  a  strong  sympathy  in 
the  present  crisis  for  Germany,  and  the  vigorous 
expression  which  has  finally  been  made  of  the 
great  pro- German  feeling  has  surprised  and  dis- 
concerted the  large  section  of  the  press  which 
takes  its  tone  from  London.  The  truth,  Ger- 
mans feel,  will,  however,  gradually  prevail,  once 
the  issue  has  been  made  as  it  has  been  made  and 
when  it  does  Germans  are  confident  that  the  es- 
tablishment of  closer  relations  between  America 
and  Germany  cannot  fail  to  be  of  the  greatest 
mutual  benefit  to  both  countries. 

Politically  Germany  is  the  European  counter- 
weight which  maintains  the  balance  of  power 
without  which  this  country  would  have  to  take  its 
place  in  the  scale  pan  of  international  rivalry. 


302      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

With  a  strong  and  united  Germany,  no  Euro- 
pean nation  directly  or  as  the  ally  of  Japan  would 
dare  involve  itself  in  a  war  with  this  country. 
Any  diminution  of  Germany's  power  means 
added  danger  for  America,  a  consideration  to 
which  the  public  is  entirely  blinded  by  the  in- 
spired favoritism  of  the  press  for  England. 

Germany  finds  in  America  one  of  her  greatest 
reservoirs  of  raw  materials  and  one  of  her  great- 
est customers  for  manufactured  products,  while 
America  has  equally  important  commercial  in- 
centives toward  a  closer  understanding  with  Ger- 
many. Germany  is  the  best  customer  America 
has  in  numerous  lines  and  the  source  of  a  large 
supply  of  her  partly  manufactured  products  or 
products  used  in  the  finished  products  of  Ameri- 
can factories.  There  is  no  more  reason  for 
Germany  and  the  United  States  to  exercise  com- 
mercial hostility  toward  each  other  than  for 
Massachusetts  and  Alabama  or  Pennsylvania  and 
Kansas  to  do  so. 

The  day  has  long  since  gone  by  to  raise  the 
cry  of  cheap  German  labor,  for  the  laborer  in 
Germany  is  better  paid  today  in  Germany  than 
in  the  United  States,  while  the  technical  man  is 
vastly  better  off. 

America,  in  the  grip  of  trusts  and  combina- 
tions, with  narrowing  opportunities  for  her  busi- 
ness men  as  independent  units,   and  with  the 


INTERESTS  OF  GERMANY  AND  U.  S.      303 

increasing  pressure  of  population  is  meeting 
problems  that  Germany  has  successfully  solved 
during  the  past  generation.  There  is  no  secret 
made  of  Germany's  methods,  whoever  runs  may 
read,  and  Germany  is  an  open  book  from  which 
America  has  many  and  valuable  lessons  to  learn. 

And  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  lessons  that  is 
to  be  learned  is  the  lesson  of  learning  that  lessons 
may  be  learned. 

If  we  continue  to  believe  that  we  have  nothing 
to  learn  from  any  other  country,  we  must  con- 
tinue to  lose  ground  to  every  country  that  either 
originates  or  learns  any  particular  lesson. 

One  of  the  first  and  greatest  lessons  that  Ger- 
many has  ever  learned  is  the  lesson  that  she  can 
learn  from  others.  And  she  does  not  hesitate  to 
act  upon  that  lesson.  She  has  been  and  still  is 
ready,  willing  and  anxious  to  learn  anything  that 
can  be  learned  from  any  source.  And  for  this 
she  is  even  reproached,  and  by  those  to  whom  she 
pays  the  compliment  of  attention  to  their  achieve- 
ments. Yet  when  she  has  lessons  to  offer,  such 
countries  instead  of  learning  with  willingness  and 
profit,  turn  to  disparagement  and  detraction; 
instead  of  being  spurred  to  greater  efforts  by  her 
competition,  combine  in  the  desperate  attempt  to 
destroy  the  greatest  single  source  of  modern 
progress. 

In  America  it  is  unquestionably  admitted  that 


304      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

the  rich  are  growing  richer  and  the  poor  poorer, 
that  discontent  is  increasing,  that  opportunities 
are  diminishing,  that  the  ideal  of  democracy  is 
not  being  fulfilled,  that  in  reality  the  control  of 
the  country  is  in  the  hands  of  classes  and  indi- 
viduals who  are  determined  to  exploit  the  coun- 
try as  far  as  possible  for  their  own  personal  ad- 
vantage and  that  the  will  of  the  people  is  neither 
definitely  formed  nor  when  formed  to  any  ex- 
tent, capable  of  finding  through  our  institutions 
prompt  and  adequate  expression. 

Since  1907  we  have  suffered  from  a  depression 
which  instead  of  being  relieved  is  steadily  grow- 
ing worse  and  in  fact  which  is  impossible  of  relief 
until  fundamental  changes  of  policy  and  method 
have  been  made. 

During  the  lean  years  which  have  come  upon 
us,  Germany  has  been  enjoying  fat  years;  while 
we  have  at  best  only  been  holding  our  own  in  the 
international  procession  and  while  we  have  been 
losing  ground  internally,  Germany  has  been 
gaining  both  internationally  and  internally. 

During  the  same  time  England  has  been  rap- 
idly losing  ground  both  externally  and  internally. 
And  England  has  been  during  the  past  gener- 
ation, the  least  progressive  country  and  in  Eng- 
land the  contrast  between  wealth  and  poverty  is 
most  marked.  In  Germany  on  the  other  hand 
the  distribution  of  wealth  is  more  general  and 
equitable  than  in  any  other  country. 


INTERESTS  OF  GERMANY  AND  U.  S.      305 

In  America  the  divergence  between  wealth  and 
poverty  is  rapidly  becoming  as  marked  as  in 
England.  In  short  we  are  going  the  way  that 
England  is  going,  the  path  of  plutocratic  destruc- 
tion, the  path  that  led  to  the  fall  of  Rome  and 
the  path  that  ultimately  destroys  every  country 
which  permits  itself  to  be  so  led. 

Germany  is  not  on  that  path. 

Will  America  choose  to  follow  the  example  of 
England  or  of  Germany? 

Will  the  American  business  man,  the  Ameri- 
can artisan  seek  to  study  the  German  methods 
and  learn  individually  for  himself  the  German 
secrets  of  success  in  principle  and  practice,  so 
invaluable  to  him  whatever  his  walk,  as  the  Ger- 
man learns  wherever  he  can,  or  will  he  follow  the 
British  plan  of  sticking  his  head  ostrichlike  in 
the  sands  of  self  sufficiency  and  using  his  heels 
for  defence  instead  of  for  progress?  And  will 
the  American  people  as  a  whole,  so  change  their 
methods  of  administration  as  to  secure  the  proper 
results  of  self  government,  or  will  they  be  con- 
tent to  see  wealth  continue  to  pile  up  in  the  hands 
of  the  few  while  the  hands  of  the  many  remain 
empty? 

The  lessons  of  Germany  and  of  England  are 
before  us. 

There  are  not  wanting  signs  of  an  awakening 
but  it  will  need  persistence  and  courage  to  shake 


306      SECRETS  OF  GERMAN  PROGRESS 

off  the  lethargy  of  political  indifference,  and  an 
aroused  spirit  of  co-operation,  a  vigorous  and 
sustained  effort  and  a  much  larger  devotion  of 
the  individual  to  the  welfare  of  the  whole  than 
has  been  characteristic  of  our  political  life  dur- 
ing the  past  generation  if  we  are  to  attain  the 
position  that  our  natural  talents  and  opportuni- 
ties entitle  us  to  enjoy  and  if  we  are  to  maintain 
our  place  in  the  procession  of  progress. 


BOOKS  BY  FRANK  KOESTER 


Modern  City  Planning  and  Maintenance. 

10x7    Inches.     322   Pages.     215    Illustrations.     $6.00   Net. 

"Mr.  Koester  has  prepared  a  work  that  may  be  regarded  as  one  of  the 
most  authoritative  expositions  of  this  topic  that  has  been  published  in  this 
country.  While  the  subject  of  town  planning  is  of  more  recent  interest 
in  the  United  States  than  in  Europe,  American  municipalities  have  taken 
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bringing  achievements  in  this  direction  more  nearly  abreast  the  present 
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theoretical  sides  of  European  practice.  His  12  years'  residence  in  this 
country  has  given  him  opportunities  of  studying  the  need  of  American  cities. 
His  ideals  appeal  to  the  eye  and  the  imagination.  He  is  not,  however,  a 
theorist;  in  every  recommendation  there  is  evidence  of  the  practical  mind 
of  the  civic  engineer." — Providence,  R.  I.,  Journal. 

The  Price  of  Inefficiency. 

8y2x5y2  Inches.     423  Pages.     Cloth.     $2.00  Net. 

"The  high  cost  of  living  would  be  no  problem  if  we  could  save  one-half 
of  what  we  waste  each  year,  as  shown  to  us  by  the  author  of  this  volume. 
The  book  is  not  complimentary  to  the  intelligence  of  human  beings,  but  it 
is  not  the  author's  fault.  He  records  the  facts,  and  the  facts  reveal  our 
inefficiency.  This  volume  is  well  worthy  of  careful  study  by  every  one 
interested  in  the  progress  of  civilization." — Boston  Evening  Transcript. 

"Compared  with  other  books  on  sociological  subjects,  this  volume  displays 
a  much  greater  knowledge  and  a  keener  logical  treatment  than  anything 
of  its  kind.  The  author  enjoys  the  advantage  of  being  a  citizen  of  two 
worlds,  having  received  his  training  in  Germany,  while  he  has  been  prac- 
ticing in  America  for  a  number  of  years  and  is  known  as  one  of  the 
best  engineers.  He  is  in  position  thus  to  draw  comparisons  and  to  point 
out  to  the  American  specialists  the  methods  and  means  of  solving  the 
most  difficult  problems.  This  book  will  contribute  materially  to  the  solu- 
tion of  our  most  important  national  problems." — Trans,  from  Deutsches 
Journal,  New  York. 


BOOKS  BY  FRANK  KOESTER 

Hydroelectric  Developments  and  Engineering. 

11x8   Inches.     479    Pages.     500    Illustrations.     $5.00    Net. 

"This  work  dealing  with  a  subject  of  great  interest  to  engineers  in  all 
lines  of  professional  work,  is  written  by  a  man  who  is  evidently  well 
acquainted  with  both  the  principles  and  practice  of  this  important  branch 
of  engineering.  The  plan  of  the  book  is  excellent,  the  main  features  of  the 
subject  being  so  grouped  as  to  afford  a  clear,  logical  exposition  of  the 
whole." — The  School  of  Mines  Quarterly,  Columbia   University,  New  Yotk. 

"Mr.  Koester  has  made  an  exhaustive  study  of  the  evolution  of  the  past 
15  to  20  years  in  the  great  field  of  hydroelectric  development,  and  has 
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The  reader  will  find  in  this  handsome,  well-written,  well-indexed  volume 
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hydroelectric  art." — Electrical  World,  New  York. 

Steam=Electric  Power=Plants. 

11x8   Inches.     473  Pages.     500   Illustrations.     $5.00   Net. 

"This  book  will  undoubtedly  take  a  high  place  among  the  classical  works 
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The  Electrician,  London. 

"A  long-felt  want  has  been  met  with  the  issue  of  this  work,  as  it  sup- 
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which  the  whole  subject  has  been  treated  by  him,  is  fully  up  to  his  high 
standard." — Electrical  Review,  New  York. 


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